FA+
Shop
13 Years of Etheras!
Posted 9 months agoHearken to me, my subjects!
(OOC)
So Etheras is officially a teenager! I mean... he's canonically an adult, but I unveiled him to the world 13 years ago this month. Times flies, doesn't it?
Lucky number 13. Maybe this year I should post more art of... unfortunate things happening to my fenn. (I have a lil backlog of vore content that I've been sitting-on.... it never seems like the "right time" to post vore.)
I still want to revive Jaspian, but its difficult to find the time.
Anyway, THANK YOU for your appreciation of my haughty little fennec prince. I am forever grateful for all the love that the community has shown for this character, and I hope he will continue to have a place in your heart. I appreciate you all. Have a great 2025!
~ Etheras's player
(OOC)
So Etheras is officially a teenager! I mean... he's canonically an adult, but I unveiled him to the world 13 years ago this month. Times flies, doesn't it?
Lucky number 13. Maybe this year I should post more art of... unfortunate things happening to my fenn. (I have a lil backlog of vore content that I've been sitting-on.... it never seems like the "right time" to post vore.)
I still want to revive Jaspian, but its difficult to find the time.
Anyway, THANK YOU for your appreciation of my haughty little fennec prince. I am forever grateful for all the love that the community has shown for this character, and I hope he will continue to have a place in your heart. I appreciate you all. Have a great 2025!
~ Etheras's player
2024 In-Review
Posted 9 months agoWelcome all, and thanks for reading my YEAR IN REVIEW for 2024!
I hope your's went well. Mine contained some ups, and some downs, but on-net, mostly ups! I feel like these "YEAR IN REVIEW" articles have been downers over the last few years. But this year, I have a renewed sense of optimism.
Last year, I wrote that every-year you get older, there seem to be more things vying for your attention. There's always more that has to be done, and the amount of free time in-which to do it never grows to accommodate it. This year is no different in that regard, but I do feel like I've dug myself out of some of the "backlog" of things I need to do (and have been putting off), and it's lifted a bit of weight from my shoulders. I wrote last year that I procrastinate too much, and that may still be true, but I made a list and was disciplined about chipping away at it, and a year later: feeling much better. In hindsight, I think we don't realize how much of a toil it puts on us when we let those burdens heap up on our shoulders. The "Bread and Circuses" of video games and TV give us a reprieve and allow for a moment of relaxation, but the burdens are still there. The only real solution is to put down the game and fix the issues.
Anyway, lets chat about 2024!
ETHERAS ACHIEVEMENTS
In all honesty, I haven't been tracking milestones as closely as I used-to. Like a fun little game, I used to track hits and followers and likes and all that stuff. But I'm much too busy these days.
So, Etheras...
.... uploaded a bunch of art!
... conquered a bunch of countries!
... subjugated some subjects!
... and all that business. ;)
IRL PERSONAL NEWS
I got a new job, actually. Some of you know that I work in video games, and the industry is in pretty bad condition RN. Covid caused a surge in video game investment, since people were locked at home with nothing to do and stimulus-cheques in-paw, what did they buy? Video games! They couldn't leave their homes, so they explored digital worlds instead.
This caused a boom in both game sales and... frankly... lazy video games with lots of shallow, soulless procedural content (looking at you, Starfield!) rushed-out content to capitalize on the lockdown situation. And eventually, when the world opened back up, that money dried up, and the games industry contracted. But it was a bit of a delayed-fuse as studios wanted to retain their talent pool, but eventually realized it was untenable.
I managed to find one of the few small studios that's growing and has a reliable income stream, and hitched my wagon to them. Seems like a good way to weather the storm. And that took a big weight off my shoulders. Though I am still a little worried that the contraction isn't over.
Other than that, not much else to talk about. Some unfortunate health news concerning friends and family, but that's not something I want to go into on a public forum.
FURRY FANDOM NEWS
It seems like the fandom is moving more into immersive media. I started learning some animation tools, but it got back-burnered and abandoned with the deluge of other things vying for my time. I'd like to return to that in 2025.
Other than that, the consolidation of the fandom onto Twitter and Bluesky seems to be a continuing trend. Though the old sites seem to have a new spark of life in them as-well (at-least recently, I've seen more engagement. How about you?)
And of course, we lost Dragoneer this year. Dragoneer was a visionary and dedicated to the fandom. FA really brought the fandom together in one place in a way that hadn't been seen before. He will be missed.
IN THE WORLD
Wars everywhere, tensions rising, it's not looking great. Clearly something has to give, but I'm not sure what that "something" is.
Inflation is like crazy. Everything is expensive, and I don't think that's likely to change anytime soon. It wasn't that long ago that $25 was the price of filet magnon with mushroom sauce. Nowadays, you can only get a pasta plate for that price. (A pasta plate that would have been like $9 a decade ago.) I think the government inflation numbers are way too low. Inflation, particularly in food and energy, is much higher than they're saying. At least, that's what I am seeing in my own budget. I feel like I'm making less now (in terms of buying power) than I was when I was fresh out of University.
IN TECHNOLOGY
AI seems to be the new hotness. I'm not sure what to make of it. Is it really the revolution that technologists claim? I haven't seen a huge impact from it - yet. Maybe in artwork. I do use it sometimes to look things up when I'm feeling lazy, but I've caught it lying several times. Is a program that collates information still valuable if it sometimes returns incorrect information? If you have to double-check its results? I feel like the answer is: no. And I really do not believe that AGI can be born out of a LLM. Its just a smarter version of mad-libs.
Space stuff (I'm a huge space nerd): Nothing really happened except SpaceX catching that rocket - which was very impressive. Like Elon or hate him: that was pretty amazing. Also some interesting stuff from the James Webb Space Telescope about galaxy formation. That's about it.
IN MOVIES AND SHOWS
The Denis Villeneuve "DUNE" (part 2) was this year, wasn't it? It feels so long ago. Villeneuve is really standing out as the best director in Hollywood these days. (And that Hans Zimmer soundtrack! WOW!)
In terms of movies, I haven't watched a lot of new stuff this year. I think covid kinda broke movies for me. I used to go with friends to the cinema constantly. Then we got used to watching stuff at home, and now the urgency of Opening Night has been lost. You watch stuff when you "get around to it", which often means waiting for streaming. But also, there isn't much that I really want to rush out and see these days.
In terms of indie shows/movies, I am a big fan of Evan Royalty, and he dropped a STALKER-themed movie on YouTube on Halloween called "STALKER: Shadow of the Zone". I became totally obsessed with it for like... a month. (Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gwNrYJ5VKM !)
IN GAMING
PalWorld and Helldivers2 came out. I never really got into PalWorld, but I played Helldivers2 to heck and back. Got really good at it too! For Democracy!
Space Marine 2 also came out. Very fun, albeit short campaign. Otherwise, I tried to catch up on STALKER before STALKER2 dropped. Missed the mark. (Still working on it.)
In terms of other "Grim Dark" stuff, The Forever Winter came out, and though I think it has a lot of technical and balance problems, the art style is amazing. Nasty, visceral, over-the-top. It makes Warhammer 40K look downright friendly. Big ups on art direction, but its too bad the rest of the game falls a bit short. Its worth checking out the screenshots and art and lore though, even if the game is very mid.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... still haven't launched those games. I'm waffling. I can't seem to settle on ideas. But I think that's changing (thank goodness).
For the most part, I kept my to-do list short last year. Perhaps I thought that it would make things more manageable. And perhaps it did!
GOALS FOR 2025
... launch 2 games (again this year). (These are my own games, not the games for my day-job.)
... build the YouTube channel ( it's been on hiatus since about September )
... I feel like I should make more youtube channels for more of my various activities, but for now that just seems like a logistical nightmare. I had a hard enough time just running ONE.
... maybe just be more mindful and at-peace. Continue to organize my life, so that I can be more effective in the future.
CONCLUSION
I hope you liked my "YEAR IN REVIEW" for 2024. Here's to another year, another opportunity, and hopefully: great things! And thank you all, once again, for being a fan of my lil fennec prince again this year. ^.^
Cheers,
~ Etheras
I hope your's went well. Mine contained some ups, and some downs, but on-net, mostly ups! I feel like these "YEAR IN REVIEW" articles have been downers over the last few years. But this year, I have a renewed sense of optimism.
Last year, I wrote that every-year you get older, there seem to be more things vying for your attention. There's always more that has to be done, and the amount of free time in-which to do it never grows to accommodate it. This year is no different in that regard, but I do feel like I've dug myself out of some of the "backlog" of things I need to do (and have been putting off), and it's lifted a bit of weight from my shoulders. I wrote last year that I procrastinate too much, and that may still be true, but I made a list and was disciplined about chipping away at it, and a year later: feeling much better. In hindsight, I think we don't realize how much of a toil it puts on us when we let those burdens heap up on our shoulders. The "Bread and Circuses" of video games and TV give us a reprieve and allow for a moment of relaxation, but the burdens are still there. The only real solution is to put down the game and fix the issues.
Anyway, lets chat about 2024!
ETHERAS ACHIEVEMENTS
In all honesty, I haven't been tracking milestones as closely as I used-to. Like a fun little game, I used to track hits and followers and likes and all that stuff. But I'm much too busy these days.
So, Etheras...
.... uploaded a bunch of art!
... conquered a bunch of countries!
... subjugated some subjects!
... and all that business. ;)
IRL PERSONAL NEWS
I got a new job, actually. Some of you know that I work in video games, and the industry is in pretty bad condition RN. Covid caused a surge in video game investment, since people were locked at home with nothing to do and stimulus-cheques in-paw, what did they buy? Video games! They couldn't leave their homes, so they explored digital worlds instead.
This caused a boom in both game sales and... frankly... lazy video games with lots of shallow, soulless procedural content (looking at you, Starfield!) rushed-out content to capitalize on the lockdown situation. And eventually, when the world opened back up, that money dried up, and the games industry contracted. But it was a bit of a delayed-fuse as studios wanted to retain their talent pool, but eventually realized it was untenable.
I managed to find one of the few small studios that's growing and has a reliable income stream, and hitched my wagon to them. Seems like a good way to weather the storm. And that took a big weight off my shoulders. Though I am still a little worried that the contraction isn't over.
Other than that, not much else to talk about. Some unfortunate health news concerning friends and family, but that's not something I want to go into on a public forum.
FURRY FANDOM NEWS
It seems like the fandom is moving more into immersive media. I started learning some animation tools, but it got back-burnered and abandoned with the deluge of other things vying for my time. I'd like to return to that in 2025.
Other than that, the consolidation of the fandom onto Twitter and Bluesky seems to be a continuing trend. Though the old sites seem to have a new spark of life in them as-well (at-least recently, I've seen more engagement. How about you?)
And of course, we lost Dragoneer this year. Dragoneer was a visionary and dedicated to the fandom. FA really brought the fandom together in one place in a way that hadn't been seen before. He will be missed.
IN THE WORLD
Wars everywhere, tensions rising, it's not looking great. Clearly something has to give, but I'm not sure what that "something" is.
Inflation is like crazy. Everything is expensive, and I don't think that's likely to change anytime soon. It wasn't that long ago that $25 was the price of filet magnon with mushroom sauce. Nowadays, you can only get a pasta plate for that price. (A pasta plate that would have been like $9 a decade ago.) I think the government inflation numbers are way too low. Inflation, particularly in food and energy, is much higher than they're saying. At least, that's what I am seeing in my own budget. I feel like I'm making less now (in terms of buying power) than I was when I was fresh out of University.
IN TECHNOLOGY
AI seems to be the new hotness. I'm not sure what to make of it. Is it really the revolution that technologists claim? I haven't seen a huge impact from it - yet. Maybe in artwork. I do use it sometimes to look things up when I'm feeling lazy, but I've caught it lying several times. Is a program that collates information still valuable if it sometimes returns incorrect information? If you have to double-check its results? I feel like the answer is: no. And I really do not believe that AGI can be born out of a LLM. Its just a smarter version of mad-libs.
Space stuff (I'm a huge space nerd): Nothing really happened except SpaceX catching that rocket - which was very impressive. Like Elon or hate him: that was pretty amazing. Also some interesting stuff from the James Webb Space Telescope about galaxy formation. That's about it.
IN MOVIES AND SHOWS
The Denis Villeneuve "DUNE" (part 2) was this year, wasn't it? It feels so long ago. Villeneuve is really standing out as the best director in Hollywood these days. (And that Hans Zimmer soundtrack! WOW!)
In terms of movies, I haven't watched a lot of new stuff this year. I think covid kinda broke movies for me. I used to go with friends to the cinema constantly. Then we got used to watching stuff at home, and now the urgency of Opening Night has been lost. You watch stuff when you "get around to it", which often means waiting for streaming. But also, there isn't much that I really want to rush out and see these days.
In terms of indie shows/movies, I am a big fan of Evan Royalty, and he dropped a STALKER-themed movie on YouTube on Halloween called "STALKER: Shadow of the Zone". I became totally obsessed with it for like... a month. (Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gwNrYJ5VKM !)
IN GAMING
PalWorld and Helldivers2 came out. I never really got into PalWorld, but I played Helldivers2 to heck and back. Got really good at it too! For Democracy!
Space Marine 2 also came out. Very fun, albeit short campaign. Otherwise, I tried to catch up on STALKER before STALKER2 dropped. Missed the mark. (Still working on it.)
In terms of other "Grim Dark" stuff, The Forever Winter came out, and though I think it has a lot of technical and balance problems, the art style is amazing. Nasty, visceral, over-the-top. It makes Warhammer 40K look downright friendly. Big ups on art direction, but its too bad the rest of the game falls a bit short. Its worth checking out the screenshots and art and lore though, even if the game is very mid.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... still haven't launched those games. I'm waffling. I can't seem to settle on ideas. But I think that's changing (thank goodness).
For the most part, I kept my to-do list short last year. Perhaps I thought that it would make things more manageable. And perhaps it did!
GOALS FOR 2025
... launch 2 games (again this year). (These are my own games, not the games for my day-job.)
... build the YouTube channel ( it's been on hiatus since about September )
... I feel like I should make more youtube channels for more of my various activities, but for now that just seems like a logistical nightmare. I had a hard enough time just running ONE.
... maybe just be more mindful and at-peace. Continue to organize my life, so that I can be more effective in the future.
CONCLUSION
I hope you liked my "YEAR IN REVIEW" for 2024. Here's to another year, another opportunity, and hopefully: great things! And thank you all, once again, for being a fan of my lil fennec prince again this year. ^.^
Cheers,
~ Etheras
12 Years of Etheras!
Posted a year agoHearken to me, my subjects!
(OOC)
Yes, it is crazy how fast time passes. Next year, Etheras will be a teenager! I know, I know, he's an adult. But what I mean to say is... I first introduced him to the world in January of 2012.
I know this post is a bit late. If I introduced Etheras to the world at the start of January, I should be announcing his "birthday" in January too, but I've been so busy that I have neglected to sit down and write my thoughts. So here they are, for what it is worth...
I mentioned in previous years that I've been trying to "reign Etheras back in" - this often means saying NO to things. People who want to commission Etheras in their setting (rather than his), or adding him into a comic book or story... while I do appreciate him being considered, I've started declining these offers.
Going forward, I may reign Etheras in even more. A bunch of the situations I've placed him into in artwork are a little out of character for him. I'm thinking that... at some point I should revive Jaspian, and keep Etheras pure to his original concept. But at this point, it might be too late for that. We will see. Probably not this year. I'm too busy at the moment, and I want to re-design Jaspian to make him more interesting before bringing him back. But it is something that I fantasize about doing.
I mentioned previously that I will be fleshing out the Etherasverse. After some consideration, I've changed my mind on this. While I love Etheras, where he can go from here is a bit limited. He will always be seen as a pornographic character, and I'm not sure how much depth I can really add to that identity. I think most fans want to see him hooking up with stallions and mares, and the finer points of intergalactic intrigue might be better left to characters designed to be more public-facing. Its an idea anyway. Let me know what you think!
Anyway, THANK YOU for your appreciation of my haughty little fennec prince. I am forever grateful for all the love that the community has shown for this character, and I hope he will continue to have a place in your heart. I appreciate you all. Have a great 2024!
~ Etheras's player
(OOC)
Yes, it is crazy how fast time passes. Next year, Etheras will be a teenager! I know, I know, he's an adult. But what I mean to say is... I first introduced him to the world in January of 2012.
I know this post is a bit late. If I introduced Etheras to the world at the start of January, I should be announcing his "birthday" in January too, but I've been so busy that I have neglected to sit down and write my thoughts. So here they are, for what it is worth...
I mentioned in previous years that I've been trying to "reign Etheras back in" - this often means saying NO to things. People who want to commission Etheras in their setting (rather than his), or adding him into a comic book or story... while I do appreciate him being considered, I've started declining these offers.
Going forward, I may reign Etheras in even more. A bunch of the situations I've placed him into in artwork are a little out of character for him. I'm thinking that... at some point I should revive Jaspian, and keep Etheras pure to his original concept. But at this point, it might be too late for that. We will see. Probably not this year. I'm too busy at the moment, and I want to re-design Jaspian to make him more interesting before bringing him back. But it is something that I fantasize about doing.
I mentioned previously that I will be fleshing out the Etherasverse. After some consideration, I've changed my mind on this. While I love Etheras, where he can go from here is a bit limited. He will always be seen as a pornographic character, and I'm not sure how much depth I can really add to that identity. I think most fans want to see him hooking up with stallions and mares, and the finer points of intergalactic intrigue might be better left to characters designed to be more public-facing. Its an idea anyway. Let me know what you think!
Anyway, THANK YOU for your appreciation of my haughty little fennec prince. I am forever grateful for all the love that the community has shown for this character, and I hope he will continue to have a place in your heart. I appreciate you all. Have a great 2024!
~ Etheras's player
2023 In-Review
Posted a year ago(OOC, of course!)
The New Year came and went. I have a tradition of posting a couple journals at the end of the year, just to collect my thoughts. A "Year in Review", a celebration of another year of Etheras content, and then plans for the upcoming year. Obviously I'm a bit late on it this year, it being mid-February at this point.
Every year I feel like next year will be calmer, there will be less vying for my time and attention... less stress. And every year it seems that the opposite is true. The stakes are always higher, there's always more that needs attention and less time to do it. I suppose I'm making excuses here for not writing my usual annual posts on-time. If I really forced myself to do it, forced myself to find the time, it would have been done. But I always seemed to feel like something else was a higher priority. Always some fire to put out or pressing emergency. I suppose reality is entropy in-action. Everything is always decaying and falling apart, and we scramble to try and hold it together as much as we can.
I don't mean to sound so dire and depressing, but 2023 was not a good year for me. Just another year of hopes and dreams that didn't come to fruition. It's probably my own fault. I feel like I lack structure and discipline in my life. Too willing to procrastinate. But the funny thing is, I don't procrastinate and do something relaxing or fun. I just get stuck in an in-between state where I'm like "preparing" to do the hard work, but never get to it. It's like... doing a stretch routine before exercise for so long that I no longer have time for the exercise. If that makes sense?
But enough using Journals as my personal psychiatrist (or is it a psychologist?) Let's talk about 2023!
ETHERAS ACHIEVEMENTS
I haven't been tracking data as closely as I used to. I've realized that it doesn't really matter. Back in the day, I treated views and faves and watches as a kind of "score" and took pride in it. I now see that as kind of hollow and narcissistic. People are not scores. And if you're doing things just to get thumbs-ups from others, that's very unhealthy. So I will probably stop following "scores" altogether, except one:
... passed 1000 followers on Twitter (yay)
Other than that, I also...
... uploaded a bunch of artwork!
... conquered some people!
... subjugated some stuff!
IRL ACHIEVEMENTS (or lack thereof)
It was a bit of an uneventful year TBH, and went by far too quickly. Filled with stress and scrambling around, I feel like I didn't really make any real improvements in my life situation. In fact, a few things got a lot worse.
FURRY FANDOM NEWS
The Furry sites seem to be a wasteland. Only those of us who got into the fandom early seem to remain. Everybody else seems to have moved on to Twitter of all places (which I don't understand), or perhaps Bluesky (I have a license code but haven't really used it yet).
As technology improves, it seems like interaction is moving away from static images too. Twitter is full of 2D and 3D animation. That is the future. The age of a person with modest means creating an interesting character and becoming popular through commissioning that character is probably over. These days, you'd either need to learn to animate or be independently wealthy and pay someone else to do it. Pay-for-popularity doesn't seem like it's going to foster a fun and creative community to me. It's kind-of sad. It reduces everybody to being a nobody while entrenching an aristocracy. But maybe that's just the way that things go when fandoms get this large.
Here I am, sounding like an old fuddy-duddy "Back in my day things used to be better!" ... but in all sincerity, I do think things were better. But maybe I'm just wearing rose-tinted nostalgia glasses.
IN THE WORLD
... everything is going to hell. I'm not sure whether we're all going to die in World War 3 or a 2nd American Civil War. Things seem to be pretty bad. I think I'm going to gloss over this section because it's just too depressing.
IN THE MEDIA
... nothing good, really.
... I did watch Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and that was amazing, but even that is a few years old, I'm just late to the party.
... looking forward to Dune part 2, but even part 1 came out in 2022, not 2023. So... yeah, 2023 was a media wasteland.
... John Wick 4 was fun, but it's moving further away from its realistic roots and more into a comicbook-type movie. Each successive episode is more cheesy and vapid than the previous one. I feel like crying out like that kid from The Simpsons, "Stop! Stop!! It's already dead!"
IN GAMING
... Starfield is a big empty void of content. I do appreciate the NASA-punk aesthetic, but Bethesda Softworks seems to be continuing its identity crisis. (They seem to have forgotten why people love(d) their games)
... Hogwarts Legacy came out in 2023 though, and it was -amazing- . Best game I've played in a long time. I do wish that your choice to either become a dark or light wizard was less like Mass Effect 3's "3-choices" ending. To quote Linkin Park: In the end, it didn't even matter. I suspect that this was an effort to keep the game paths open enough for DLC. Maybe we'll have a "real" ending once all the DLC are published. One can only hope.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
I pretty-much failed at everything this year.
... I didn't launch a 2nd game or even really support the 1st.
... I didn't start the tabletop group
... I didn't get any renovation done
... I didn't update www.etheras.com
GOALS FOR 2024
... launch 2 games. I absolutely must complete this.
... more Etheras artwork
... build the Youtube channel
... I'm going to put off the D&D group 'til 2025 at least. I need to focus on my work first.
... same with updating etheras.com . Need to get my game company profitable.
CONCLUSION
I hope this dower moping post didn't bring down your day too much. But another year, another opportunity. A chance for things to get better. I hope your 2024 is great. And thank you for being a fan of my lil fennec prince this year. ^.^
Cheers!
~ Etheras
The New Year came and went. I have a tradition of posting a couple journals at the end of the year, just to collect my thoughts. A "Year in Review", a celebration of another year of Etheras content, and then plans for the upcoming year. Obviously I'm a bit late on it this year, it being mid-February at this point.
Every year I feel like next year will be calmer, there will be less vying for my time and attention... less stress. And every year it seems that the opposite is true. The stakes are always higher, there's always more that needs attention and less time to do it. I suppose I'm making excuses here for not writing my usual annual posts on-time. If I really forced myself to do it, forced myself to find the time, it would have been done. But I always seemed to feel like something else was a higher priority. Always some fire to put out or pressing emergency. I suppose reality is entropy in-action. Everything is always decaying and falling apart, and we scramble to try and hold it together as much as we can.
I don't mean to sound so dire and depressing, but 2023 was not a good year for me. Just another year of hopes and dreams that didn't come to fruition. It's probably my own fault. I feel like I lack structure and discipline in my life. Too willing to procrastinate. But the funny thing is, I don't procrastinate and do something relaxing or fun. I just get stuck in an in-between state where I'm like "preparing" to do the hard work, but never get to it. It's like... doing a stretch routine before exercise for so long that I no longer have time for the exercise. If that makes sense?
But enough using Journals as my personal psychiatrist (or is it a psychologist?) Let's talk about 2023!
ETHERAS ACHIEVEMENTS
I haven't been tracking data as closely as I used to. I've realized that it doesn't really matter. Back in the day, I treated views and faves and watches as a kind of "score" and took pride in it. I now see that as kind of hollow and narcissistic. People are not scores. And if you're doing things just to get thumbs-ups from others, that's very unhealthy. So I will probably stop following "scores" altogether, except one:
... passed 1000 followers on Twitter (yay)
Other than that, I also...
... uploaded a bunch of artwork!
... conquered some people!
... subjugated some stuff!
IRL ACHIEVEMENTS (or lack thereof)
It was a bit of an uneventful year TBH, and went by far too quickly. Filled with stress and scrambling around, I feel like I didn't really make any real improvements in my life situation. In fact, a few things got a lot worse.
FURRY FANDOM NEWS
The Furry sites seem to be a wasteland. Only those of us who got into the fandom early seem to remain. Everybody else seems to have moved on to Twitter of all places (which I don't understand), or perhaps Bluesky (I have a license code but haven't really used it yet).
As technology improves, it seems like interaction is moving away from static images too. Twitter is full of 2D and 3D animation. That is the future. The age of a person with modest means creating an interesting character and becoming popular through commissioning that character is probably over. These days, you'd either need to learn to animate or be independently wealthy and pay someone else to do it. Pay-for-popularity doesn't seem like it's going to foster a fun and creative community to me. It's kind-of sad. It reduces everybody to being a nobody while entrenching an aristocracy. But maybe that's just the way that things go when fandoms get this large.
Here I am, sounding like an old fuddy-duddy "Back in my day things used to be better!" ... but in all sincerity, I do think things were better. But maybe I'm just wearing rose-tinted nostalgia glasses.
IN THE WORLD
... everything is going to hell. I'm not sure whether we're all going to die in World War 3 or a 2nd American Civil War. Things seem to be pretty bad. I think I'm going to gloss over this section because it's just too depressing.
IN THE MEDIA
... nothing good, really.
... I did watch Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and that was amazing, but even that is a few years old, I'm just late to the party.
... looking forward to Dune part 2, but even part 1 came out in 2022, not 2023. So... yeah, 2023 was a media wasteland.
... John Wick 4 was fun, but it's moving further away from its realistic roots and more into a comicbook-type movie. Each successive episode is more cheesy and vapid than the previous one. I feel like crying out like that kid from The Simpsons, "Stop! Stop!! It's already dead!"
IN GAMING
... Starfield is a big empty void of content. I do appreciate the NASA-punk aesthetic, but Bethesda Softworks seems to be continuing its identity crisis. (They seem to have forgotten why people love(d) their games)
... Hogwarts Legacy came out in 2023 though, and it was -amazing- . Best game I've played in a long time. I do wish that your choice to either become a dark or light wizard was less like Mass Effect 3's "3-choices" ending. To quote Linkin Park: In the end, it didn't even matter. I suspect that this was an effort to keep the game paths open enough for DLC. Maybe we'll have a "real" ending once all the DLC are published. One can only hope.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
I pretty-much failed at everything this year.
... I didn't launch a 2nd game or even really support the 1st.
... I didn't start the tabletop group
... I didn't get any renovation done
... I didn't update www.etheras.com
GOALS FOR 2024
... launch 2 games. I absolutely must complete this.
... more Etheras artwork
... build the Youtube channel
... I'm going to put off the D&D group 'til 2025 at least. I need to focus on my work first.
... same with updating etheras.com . Need to get my game company profitable.
CONCLUSION
I hope this dower moping post didn't bring down your day too much. But another year, another opportunity. A chance for things to get better. I hope your 2024 is great. And thank you for being a fan of my lil fennec prince this year. ^.^
Cheers!
~ Etheras
SCAM ALERT: Someone commissioning Eth and doing chargebac...
Posted 2 years agoHi everybody,
I was just informed that there's a scammer going around commissioning Etheras artwork and then doing chargebacks to rip off the artist and get the artwork for free.
This artwork is not Etheras artwork and is being commissioned by an impostor who does not have permission to use my character.
ARTISTS, be aware that I do not commission through others. Unless the commission is coming from me directly, it is not a legitimate commission of my character, and you are likely going to be ripped off. Please let others know that this is the case.
I was just informed of this today, and so some of the details are still unclear. If you think you know of other cases of this scam, or any other details, please send me a note.
Thank you!
~ Eth
I was just informed that there's a scammer going around commissioning Etheras artwork and then doing chargebacks to rip off the artist and get the artwork for free.
This artwork is not Etheras artwork and is being commissioned by an impostor who does not have permission to use my character.
ARTISTS, be aware that I do not commission through others. Unless the commission is coming from me directly, it is not a legitimate commission of my character, and you are likely going to be ripped off. Please let others know that this is the case.
I was just informed of this today, and so some of the details are still unclear. If you think you know of other cases of this scam, or any other details, please send me a note.
Thank you!
~ Eth
11 Years of ETHERAS!
Posted 3 years agoHearken to me, my subjects.
OOC
Its starting to become *just a number* isn't it? XP
So Etheras has been a character for 11 years now. It really has flown by, hasn't it? And yet, a lot has happened in those years. But
one thing hasn't changed (much): Etheras has remained solid. A testament to his excellent design, if I do say-so myself ;) His aesthetic hasn't changed much, though I did open him up to things that were a little out-of-character over the years...
I am trying to reign it back in though. From now on, you will not be seeing much of Etheras out of his fictional setting, aside from the annual Halloween and Christmas art (of course). That's going to be one of my commitments going forward: establishing the Etheras canon and lore much more firmly so that I can build upon it and flesh out the Etherasverse.
I hope that sounds interesting to you, and I hope you'll join me on this continuing journey. And THANK YOU for your appreciation of my haughty little fennec character. I am forever grateful of the love that the community has shown for this character, and I hope he will continue to have a place in your heart. I appreciate you all. Have a great 2023!
~ Etheras's player
OOC
Its starting to become *just a number* isn't it? XP
So Etheras has been a character for 11 years now. It really has flown by, hasn't it? And yet, a lot has happened in those years. But
one thing hasn't changed (much): Etheras has remained solid. A testament to his excellent design, if I do say-so myself ;) His aesthetic hasn't changed much, though I did open him up to things that were a little out-of-character over the years...
I am trying to reign it back in though. From now on, you will not be seeing much of Etheras out of his fictional setting, aside from the annual Halloween and Christmas art (of course). That's going to be one of my commitments going forward: establishing the Etheras canon and lore much more firmly so that I can build upon it and flesh out the Etherasverse.
I hope that sounds interesting to you, and I hope you'll join me on this continuing journey. And THANK YOU for your appreciation of my haughty little fennec character. I am forever grateful of the love that the community has shown for this character, and I hope he will continue to have a place in your heart. I appreciate you all. Have a great 2023!
~ Etheras's player
2022 in-review
Posted 3 years ago(OOC of course)
So 2022 is now coming to a close. Feels like it just started, doesn't it?
If I were to look back and summarize the year, I'd say "A not-quite return to normality." Covid isn't over, and I think we've all accepted that it will probably never be over. But perhaps its not the apocalyptic plague that we initially thought. Seems like life is returning to usual, but with some caveats. I noticed that people still give eachother wide berths when walking, even outside. It makes me wonder if we're all scarred somewhat psychologically. The plastic barriers remain up at hotels and hospitals. People seem generally sicker than usual. It makes me wonder if locking ourselves up for 18 months and sanitizing everything has affected our collective immune system.
I think I caught covid earlier in 2022, and felt awful for about 2 days. But I didn't have the energy to go out and get tested. But as quickly as it came-on, it went. So... yeah... I dunno if it was the 'rona or not, but from other folks' description of symptoms, I think it was.
But enough about that. Lets get into the good stuff!
ETHERAS ACHIEVEMENTS
In previous years I talked about a feeling of falling-out with the fandom. In 2022, that all changed. I'm not precisely sure what caused the change, but my enthusiasm for Etheras, and furry stuff in-general is back UP again.
... uploaded a bunch of artwork!
... conquered some people!
... subjugated some stuff!
... I haven't been paying close attention to the stats on my FA, so I might have hit some milestones and not-noticed. Oh-well. they're just numbers, right?
IRL ACHIEVEMENTS
Inflation aside (I can't believe my grocery/electric bill), I had a pretty good year.
... I launched a game!!! (FINALLY)
... Aforementioned game impressed some industry people, and I got hired at a game company. I am now officially a professional game developer.
... Picked up some new hobbies, which I am enjoying thoroughly (although my bank account isn't liking it as much).
... My YouTube channel is actually doing really well. o.o
FURRY FANDOM NEWS
I noticed that I get far less engagement on FA than ever before. Its kind-of sad, TBH. Contrariwise, my Twitter has been blowing up lately. The epicenter of the fandom has clearly shifted, and I still think its a bad move for the fandom to rely on web infrastructure that we do not control. I still love this site and will continue to post here as a first-class-citizen, and I hope that furs will come back, but it seems unlikely (at-least in the short term).
IN THE WORLD
... Ukraine
... Inflation
... FTX
... Elon Musk buying Twitter
... I'm probably glossing over a bunch of really important events, but these are the ones that stick out in my mind.
... I saw a couple decent movies lately: the new DUNE, Top Gun Maverick. Those either came out this year or late last-year. Both of these I saw at home. I think I'm done with movie theaters. I think covid was the death-knell for them, at least for me. I have no interest in going to them ever again. So: streaming it is! Except maybe Oppenheimer. I'll go see that <.<
... No really great video games this year. I played Stray. It was fun, but nothing groundbreaking. Really looking forward to Starfield. We all love to hate Bethesda for their buggy, lazy shite. But... deep down... we all love those games, don't we? (I do). ^.^
... TV is dead, and Streaming is dead too. Netflix, HBO and Amazon are in an arms race to generate the next big thing, but the writing is lazy, and the production is rushed. It might be some time before we see the return to the quality of the early days of Netflix streaming. The first few seasons of Stranger Things, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black - I can't think of anything lately of this caliber. From HBO they had: True Detective season 1, Game of Thrones, Chernobyl... what do they have now? I feel like the stage has been set for something truly remarkable to be unveiled and take our breath away, but we're left waiting. But on the bright side: this is a shining opportunity for some enterprising indie author like YOU or ME to make something wonderful and create the next big thing! ;)
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... actually I was pretty good about reaching achievements (for once!) ^.^ I kept it simple last year and stayed focused, and it worked out.
GOALS FOR 2023
... Launch another game, support the existing game.
... More Etheras artwork
... Build the Youtube channel
... I might start a D&D Group. (By "D&D", I really mean "tabletop". Could be Vampire, Cyberpunk - whatever). D&D has always been intriguing to me, though I've never played it.
... Renovate. I moved into my own place 3 years ago, and there are things I want to improve and fix-up. This was partly affected by covid, of-course. Having contractors coming in and out of your home during the outbreak of a mysterious new illness seems imprudent. Now its not so mysterious or new anymore, perhaps its time to start looking at that laundry-list of improvements that I want to make.
... I should probably try to put something up on www.etheras.com ... but that will be low-priority. Unlikely to put serious effort into that in 2023.
CONCLUSION
Have a happy New Year, and I'll catch you all in 2023. Should be an exciting year! Hope you'll stay with me ^.^
Cheers!
~ Etheras
So 2022 is now coming to a close. Feels like it just started, doesn't it?
If I were to look back and summarize the year, I'd say "A not-quite return to normality." Covid isn't over, and I think we've all accepted that it will probably never be over. But perhaps its not the apocalyptic plague that we initially thought. Seems like life is returning to usual, but with some caveats. I noticed that people still give eachother wide berths when walking, even outside. It makes me wonder if we're all scarred somewhat psychologically. The plastic barriers remain up at hotels and hospitals. People seem generally sicker than usual. It makes me wonder if locking ourselves up for 18 months and sanitizing everything has affected our collective immune system.
I think I caught covid earlier in 2022, and felt awful for about 2 days. But I didn't have the energy to go out and get tested. But as quickly as it came-on, it went. So... yeah... I dunno if it was the 'rona or not, but from other folks' description of symptoms, I think it was.
But enough about that. Lets get into the good stuff!
ETHERAS ACHIEVEMENTS
In previous years I talked about a feeling of falling-out with the fandom. In 2022, that all changed. I'm not precisely sure what caused the change, but my enthusiasm for Etheras, and furry stuff in-general is back UP again.
... uploaded a bunch of artwork!
... conquered some people!
... subjugated some stuff!
... I haven't been paying close attention to the stats on my FA, so I might have hit some milestones and not-noticed. Oh-well. they're just numbers, right?
IRL ACHIEVEMENTS
Inflation aside (I can't believe my grocery/electric bill), I had a pretty good year.
... I launched a game!!! (FINALLY)
... Aforementioned game impressed some industry people, and I got hired at a game company. I am now officially a professional game developer.
... Picked up some new hobbies, which I am enjoying thoroughly (although my bank account isn't liking it as much).
... My YouTube channel is actually doing really well. o.o
FURRY FANDOM NEWS
I noticed that I get far less engagement on FA than ever before. Its kind-of sad, TBH. Contrariwise, my Twitter has been blowing up lately. The epicenter of the fandom has clearly shifted, and I still think its a bad move for the fandom to rely on web infrastructure that we do not control. I still love this site and will continue to post here as a first-class-citizen, and I hope that furs will come back, but it seems unlikely (at-least in the short term).
IN THE WORLD
... Ukraine
... Inflation
... FTX
... Elon Musk buying Twitter
... I'm probably glossing over a bunch of really important events, but these are the ones that stick out in my mind.
... I saw a couple decent movies lately: the new DUNE, Top Gun Maverick. Those either came out this year or late last-year. Both of these I saw at home. I think I'm done with movie theaters. I think covid was the death-knell for them, at least for me. I have no interest in going to them ever again. So: streaming it is! Except maybe Oppenheimer. I'll go see that <.<
... No really great video games this year. I played Stray. It was fun, but nothing groundbreaking. Really looking forward to Starfield. We all love to hate Bethesda for their buggy, lazy shite. But... deep down... we all love those games, don't we? (I do). ^.^
... TV is dead, and Streaming is dead too. Netflix, HBO and Amazon are in an arms race to generate the next big thing, but the writing is lazy, and the production is rushed. It might be some time before we see the return to the quality of the early days of Netflix streaming. The first few seasons of Stranger Things, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black - I can't think of anything lately of this caliber. From HBO they had: True Detective season 1, Game of Thrones, Chernobyl... what do they have now? I feel like the stage has been set for something truly remarkable to be unveiled and take our breath away, but we're left waiting. But on the bright side: this is a shining opportunity for some enterprising indie author like YOU or ME to make something wonderful and create the next big thing! ;)
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... actually I was pretty good about reaching achievements (for once!) ^.^ I kept it simple last year and stayed focused, and it worked out.
GOALS FOR 2023
... Launch another game, support the existing game.
... More Etheras artwork
... Build the Youtube channel
... I might start a D&D Group. (By "D&D", I really mean "tabletop". Could be Vampire, Cyberpunk - whatever). D&D has always been intriguing to me, though I've never played it.
... Renovate. I moved into my own place 3 years ago, and there are things I want to improve and fix-up. This was partly affected by covid, of-course. Having contractors coming in and out of your home during the outbreak of a mysterious new illness seems imprudent. Now its not so mysterious or new anymore, perhaps its time to start looking at that laundry-list of improvements that I want to make.
... I should probably try to put something up on www.etheras.com ... but that will be low-priority. Unlikely to put serious effort into that in 2023.
CONCLUSION
Have a happy New Year, and I'll catch you all in 2023. Should be an exciting year! Hope you'll stay with me ^.^
Cheers!
~ Etheras
QUESTION: What is the appeal of Pokemon?
Posted 3 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
OOC
I have a question for those of you who are gamers of the Pokemon franchise, and that is: What is the appeal of Pokemon?
... and I don't mean that in condescending or judgey way. Lets just say that maybe someone somewhere (totally not me! Oh No-no-no! Nothing to see here!) has an idea for a game that is kind of Pokemon-y, and is curious what exactly Pokemon did right to become the world's largest media property.
By this, I DO NOT mean "uwu do you think Mewtwo badunkadunk is thicc?" I'm talking about the actual game. (maybe this is the wrong crowd to ask...)
I have watched the anime, and its entertaining enough. But I'm curious what that secret sauce is that keeps the public slathering for more. Admittedly I've never played the games, so I'm... very confused about them. I watched a Let's Play, and the game seems so simple that I just don't get the appeal. There doesn't seem to be a lot of challenge... or strategy... its just like... fire beats wood, water beats fire... but there must be more to it, right?
So I'd love to hear what you all think about this. If you are a Pokemon player: What is the appeal of Pokemon to you? And by-that I don't mean "Eevee is sexy, swish those tails".
Thanks!
~ Etheras
OOC
I have a question for those of you who are gamers of the Pokemon franchise, and that is: What is the appeal of Pokemon?
... and I don't mean that in condescending or judgey way. Lets just say that maybe someone somewhere (totally not me! Oh No-no-no! Nothing to see here!) has an idea for a game that is kind of Pokemon-y, and is curious what exactly Pokemon did right to become the world's largest media property.
By this, I DO NOT mean "uwu do you think Mewtwo badunkadunk is thicc?" I'm talking about the actual game. (maybe this is the wrong crowd to ask...)
I have watched the anime, and its entertaining enough. But I'm curious what that secret sauce is that keeps the public slathering for more. Admittedly I've never played the games, so I'm... very confused about them. I watched a Let's Play, and the game seems so simple that I just don't get the appeal. There doesn't seem to be a lot of challenge... or strategy... its just like... fire beats wood, water beats fire... but there must be more to it, right?
So I'd love to hear what you all think about this. If you are a Pokemon player: What is the appeal of Pokemon to you? And by-that I don't mean "Eevee is sexy, swish those tails".
Thanks!
~ Etheras
10 YEARS of ETHERAS!
Posted 4 years agoHearken to me, my subjects.
OOC
I can't believe its been so long! But yes, indeed, January 1 2022 marks the TEN YEAR mark for this character. That is when I unveiled his design to the world. I was shocked at how strongly the community reacted in favor of him! I never intended for him to be my primary character, but indeed he supplanted my beloved Jaspian (who I still want to continue at some point, but can never seem to find the time).
We've done a lot of things together in 10 years. Popularized certain tropes that have become fixtures in the furry world, explored new looks and new concepts, and generated a lot of excellent artwork over this decade. And of-course, there is much more to come. A backlog of artwork to upload, and many more ideas for things to create.
I appreciate all of you for joining me on this journey, and I am forever grateful that you enjoy my little fennec tyrant prince. So: thank you. Your loyalty touches my heart, and I appreciate you. And I hope you continue to enjoy my creations.
Thank you, and I hope you have a wonderful 2022,
~ Etheras's player
OOC
I can't believe its been so long! But yes, indeed, January 1 2022 marks the TEN YEAR mark for this character. That is when I unveiled his design to the world. I was shocked at how strongly the community reacted in favor of him! I never intended for him to be my primary character, but indeed he supplanted my beloved Jaspian (who I still want to continue at some point, but can never seem to find the time).
We've done a lot of things together in 10 years. Popularized certain tropes that have become fixtures in the furry world, explored new looks and new concepts, and generated a lot of excellent artwork over this decade. And of-course, there is much more to come. A backlog of artwork to upload, and many more ideas for things to create.
I appreciate all of you for joining me on this journey, and I am forever grateful that you enjoy my little fennec tyrant prince. So: thank you. Your loyalty touches my heart, and I appreciate you. And I hope you continue to enjoy my creations.
Thank you, and I hope you have a wonderful 2022,
~ Etheras's player
The Return of the Fennec
Posted 4 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
(OOC)
In 2020, I paused posting new artwork because of the pandemic. I didn't want this artwork, so lovingly conceived and crafted, to be associated with the pain and suffering of deaths and lockdowns. Its not fair to Etheras nor to the artists who spent their time and talent to create such work, for the artwork to bring up memories of dark days in the minds of the viewer, and forever be associated with that pain and suffering.
However, over a year and a half into the plague, and with new treatment/vaccine resistant mutations popping up regularly, I think we have to accept that coronavirus will be endemic. It will moderate like influenza did (the most successful parasites do not kill their hosts), but I think we need to reluctantly admit its probably here to stay, and just learn to live with it.
I wanted this journal to be happy, but after that explanation, the dark cloud seems insurmountable. However, there is a kind-of relief in acceptance, and attempting to resume normal pre-coronavirus life. And part of that life was posting artwork of one cute and sexy galactic overlord fennec. So I am going to start posting again probably tomorrow. I hope that you enjoy it and that it brightens your day, and that we all have brighter days ahead where our lives are not so dominated with bleak news and illness.
And with that, I will try to keep such depressing real-world topics to a minimum. This profile should be a source of escapism, and thoughts of a vast and spreading sci-fi empire ruled by one fennec, and his... extracurricular activities.
I bid you a lovely day. Thanks for reading!
~ Etheras
(OOC)
In 2020, I paused posting new artwork because of the pandemic. I didn't want this artwork, so lovingly conceived and crafted, to be associated with the pain and suffering of deaths and lockdowns. Its not fair to Etheras nor to the artists who spent their time and talent to create such work, for the artwork to bring up memories of dark days in the minds of the viewer, and forever be associated with that pain and suffering.
However, over a year and a half into the plague, and with new treatment/vaccine resistant mutations popping up regularly, I think we have to accept that coronavirus will be endemic. It will moderate like influenza did (the most successful parasites do not kill their hosts), but I think we need to reluctantly admit its probably here to stay, and just learn to live with it.
I wanted this journal to be happy, but after that explanation, the dark cloud seems insurmountable. However, there is a kind-of relief in acceptance, and attempting to resume normal pre-coronavirus life. And part of that life was posting artwork of one cute and sexy galactic overlord fennec. So I am going to start posting again probably tomorrow. I hope that you enjoy it and that it brightens your day, and that we all have brighter days ahead where our lives are not so dominated with bleak news and illness.
And with that, I will try to keep such depressing real-world topics to a minimum. This profile should be a source of escapism, and thoughts of a vast and spreading sci-fi empire ruled by one fennec, and his... extracurricular activities.
I bid you a lovely day. Thanks for reading!
~ Etheras
2020 in-review
Posted 4 years agoSome reflections on 2020 from your adorable overlord.
(OOC of course)
Sorry for getting this out so late. I usually try and post my "Year In Review" journal around January 1st, and here I am, almost 2-months overdue. I have a good excuse, but I'm not sure that I'm being honest. It only takes a few minutes to jot down my thoughts. I would say that I've just been too busy - which is true. But as I said, it only takes a few minutes, and I could have made the time, but I hadn't.
If I'm being honest, my head isn't in the social-media furry landscape like it once was. I think that part of the reason why I am so disengaged with the furry fandom is that a diaspora has occurred... frankly.... over the past 5 or 6 years. We used to be a closer-knit community, revolving around a few key furry sites. Now, its not clear where I should be focusing my attention. It seems like Twitter is "the place to be", but I kind-of hate Twitter. I don't like that its not managed by our own community and so we have no protection. I don't like how easy it is for kids to get access to adult art (and I don't want to contribute to that). I don't like how many art-theft "RP" accounts there are, and how difficult it is to shut them down. Twitter is not good for our community. I'm hoping that folks come back here, but I'm not optimistic.
But what am I saying? We're supposed to be talking about 2020! And there's so-much to talk-about.
2020 was probably the worst year of my life, and I think there's a significant consensus that this is the case.
As I posted last year, I left my day job last January to work on my game company full-time. All kinds of optimism and enthusiasm, only for the shadow of Coronavirus to begin looming over us not even a month later. I had my giant ears perked to some of the darker sections of the internet, and I was following rumors of this mysterious virus back when there were only a handful of infected in Wuhan. Still... I thought, "No need to panic: Nothing ever happens". When I heard news that the FBI was quietly buying millions of N95 masks, gloves, and sanitizer, that's when I got nervous. Clearly they were taking coronavirus seriously. They must know something. And the fact that it was all so quiet worried me.
I went into full prepper mode, stocked food, water, ammo, toilet paper, bleach, sanitizer, N95s, gloves.... all of it. I was ready for the apocalypse before most people even knew there was a mysterious virus. Once I saw that the container ships were no longer coming from China, I sold all the stocks I had in savings (right at the peak. I did very well).
I didn't tell anybody about this. Its difficult to know if you're overreacting. If you tell your friends and family to sell their stock and buy toilet paper, they're going to look at you like you are crazy, because maybe you are. How do you live with the guilt if you panic a loved-one and your advice turns out to be foolish? In hindsight, my instincts were correct.
So anyway - I hunkered down to work on my startup company while the world slowly realized how unprepared it was. You would think that this would be good for my productivity. I have my own place, plenty of supplies, I don't have to go to the office anymore, everything is closed so you don't have friends who want to go out to dinner or movies or parties. Nothing to do but heads-down and get to work. But circumstances were rather bad for my concentration. Like a slow-motion train-wreck, or a 100-car pile up, there's a morbid fascination. I didn't want to watch, but I couldn't help it... watching counties in the US turning red (confirmed infections) and then black (confirmed deaths) on the Johns Hopkins Covid map. All the fallout and the drama, the finger-pointing and the scramble for PPE and treatments...
I won't go into coronavirus much more. You all know about it: you lived it too. The one big takeaway I have is that I am SO GLAD that I left the big-city metro area and moved to the country. If I were stuck in that apartment, ducts shared with all the neighbors, overcrowded, grocery store shelves picked-clean, followed by the summer's BLM riots, I'd probably be in much worse shape. Fortuitous or prescient, my move turned-out to be a spectacular decision. But at the same time, I was far less productive than I had anticipated.
Covid really overshadowed all of 2020. I watched fewer movies (no theaters), didn't go to any big events (all canceled). It was all just work-work-work and watching the world slowly unravel online. I even stopped posting Etheras artwork for a time, because I didn't want the negative association between the lockdown and Etheras. Other than the annual Christmas and Halloween artwork, I haven't really posted artwork since Coronavirus went global, and I think I'm going to continue not-posting until we achieve some semblance of normality again.
But, enough mopey fennec. Lets talk about what happened in 2020.
ETHERAS CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENTS
... some new artwork
... conquered some people.
... subjugated some stuff.
ETHERAS PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS
... Doing GameDev full-time now (yaaaay)
... Still healthy (yaaaay) and so are my family and friends (yaaaay). The only people I know so-far who have gotten sick are once or twice removed from myself. Here's hoping it stays that way ( *fingers crossed* )
... I started a YouTube channel, for LetsPlays. Presently I'm trying to keep it independent from my furry identity, so I'm not posting about it here (yet). We will see whether it can survive on its own, or whether it needs the power of Etheras to succeed.
IN THE WORLD
... Being a space nerd, I'm quite happy to see developments mostly around SpaceX. Getting astronauts to the ISS not-once, but twice in 2020 was amazing. Frequent launches for Starlink and the developments of Starship have really been fun to watch.
... Lots of drama. Viruses, riots, the election. I don't think I need to remind anyone. This news isn't exactly niche.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... Lets face it: I was horrible about my commitments last year. (again-again-again-again)
... Didn't release any video game that I had promised. (again-again-again-again)
... I also failed to give an adequate presence to Etheras here on FA. (Even worse than last year!) But this year, I think there was a good excuse.
... Really, I didn't deliver on any thing that I promised last year ( sorry! #badfenn ) :(
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2021
.. Okay, I really really REALLY REALLY REEEALLY REEEEEEEALY need to release at least 1 major video game title (non-furry). Possibly as many as 3. I MEAN it this time!
.. and that's it. Keeping it simple.
Hope this year is better than last year. And I hope you'll stay with me.
Thanks for reading, and onward!
~ Lord Etheras
(OOC of course)
Sorry for getting this out so late. I usually try and post my "Year In Review" journal around January 1st, and here I am, almost 2-months overdue. I have a good excuse, but I'm not sure that I'm being honest. It only takes a few minutes to jot down my thoughts. I would say that I've just been too busy - which is true. But as I said, it only takes a few minutes, and I could have made the time, but I hadn't.
If I'm being honest, my head isn't in the social-media furry landscape like it once was. I think that part of the reason why I am so disengaged with the furry fandom is that a diaspora has occurred... frankly.... over the past 5 or 6 years. We used to be a closer-knit community, revolving around a few key furry sites. Now, its not clear where I should be focusing my attention. It seems like Twitter is "the place to be", but I kind-of hate Twitter. I don't like that its not managed by our own community and so we have no protection. I don't like how easy it is for kids to get access to adult art (and I don't want to contribute to that). I don't like how many art-theft "RP" accounts there are, and how difficult it is to shut them down. Twitter is not good for our community. I'm hoping that folks come back here, but I'm not optimistic.
But what am I saying? We're supposed to be talking about 2020! And there's so-much to talk-about.
2020 was probably the worst year of my life, and I think there's a significant consensus that this is the case.
As I posted last year, I left my day job last January to work on my game company full-time. All kinds of optimism and enthusiasm, only for the shadow of Coronavirus to begin looming over us not even a month later. I had my giant ears perked to some of the darker sections of the internet, and I was following rumors of this mysterious virus back when there were only a handful of infected in Wuhan. Still... I thought, "No need to panic: Nothing ever happens". When I heard news that the FBI was quietly buying millions of N95 masks, gloves, and sanitizer, that's when I got nervous. Clearly they were taking coronavirus seriously. They must know something. And the fact that it was all so quiet worried me.
I went into full prepper mode, stocked food, water, ammo, toilet paper, bleach, sanitizer, N95s, gloves.... all of it. I was ready for the apocalypse before most people even knew there was a mysterious virus. Once I saw that the container ships were no longer coming from China, I sold all the stocks I had in savings (right at the peak. I did very well).
I didn't tell anybody about this. Its difficult to know if you're overreacting. If you tell your friends and family to sell their stock and buy toilet paper, they're going to look at you like you are crazy, because maybe you are. How do you live with the guilt if you panic a loved-one and your advice turns out to be foolish? In hindsight, my instincts were correct.
So anyway - I hunkered down to work on my startup company while the world slowly realized how unprepared it was. You would think that this would be good for my productivity. I have my own place, plenty of supplies, I don't have to go to the office anymore, everything is closed so you don't have friends who want to go out to dinner or movies or parties. Nothing to do but heads-down and get to work. But circumstances were rather bad for my concentration. Like a slow-motion train-wreck, or a 100-car pile up, there's a morbid fascination. I didn't want to watch, but I couldn't help it... watching counties in the US turning red (confirmed infections) and then black (confirmed deaths) on the Johns Hopkins Covid map. All the fallout and the drama, the finger-pointing and the scramble for PPE and treatments...
I won't go into coronavirus much more. You all know about it: you lived it too. The one big takeaway I have is that I am SO GLAD that I left the big-city metro area and moved to the country. If I were stuck in that apartment, ducts shared with all the neighbors, overcrowded, grocery store shelves picked-clean, followed by the summer's BLM riots, I'd probably be in much worse shape. Fortuitous or prescient, my move turned-out to be a spectacular decision. But at the same time, I was far less productive than I had anticipated.
Covid really overshadowed all of 2020. I watched fewer movies (no theaters), didn't go to any big events (all canceled). It was all just work-work-work and watching the world slowly unravel online. I even stopped posting Etheras artwork for a time, because I didn't want the negative association between the lockdown and Etheras. Other than the annual Christmas and Halloween artwork, I haven't really posted artwork since Coronavirus went global, and I think I'm going to continue not-posting until we achieve some semblance of normality again.
But, enough mopey fennec. Lets talk about what happened in 2020.
ETHERAS CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENTS
... some new artwork
... conquered some people.
... subjugated some stuff.
ETHERAS PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS
... Doing GameDev full-time now (yaaaay)
... Still healthy (yaaaay) and so are my family and friends (yaaaay). The only people I know so-far who have gotten sick are once or twice removed from myself. Here's hoping it stays that way ( *fingers crossed* )
... I started a YouTube channel, for LetsPlays. Presently I'm trying to keep it independent from my furry identity, so I'm not posting about it here (yet). We will see whether it can survive on its own, or whether it needs the power of Etheras to succeed.
IN THE WORLD
... Being a space nerd, I'm quite happy to see developments mostly around SpaceX. Getting astronauts to the ISS not-once, but twice in 2020 was amazing. Frequent launches for Starlink and the developments of Starship have really been fun to watch.
... Lots of drama. Viruses, riots, the election. I don't think I need to remind anyone. This news isn't exactly niche.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... Lets face it: I was horrible about my commitments last year. (again-again-again-again)
... Didn't release any video game that I had promised. (again-again-again-again)
... I also failed to give an adequate presence to Etheras here on FA. (Even worse than last year!) But this year, I think there was a good excuse.
... Really, I didn't deliver on any thing that I promised last year ( sorry! #badfenn ) :(
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2021
.. Okay, I really really REALLY REALLY REEEALLY REEEEEEEALY need to release at least 1 major video game title (non-furry). Possibly as many as 3. I MEAN it this time!
.. and that's it. Keeping it simple.
Hope this year is better than last year. And I hope you'll stay with me.
Thanks for reading, and onward!
~ Lord Etheras
9 Years of Etheras
Posted 5 years agoHearken to me, my subjects.
OOC
Etheras was introduced 9 years ago on January 1, 2012. Time flies, doesn't it? Only 373 uploads later, he's become one of the most recognizable furry characters in the fandom.
At this point, Etheras has lost a lot of his luster in the fandom. He's become a fixture. A lot of furries who have been in the fandom for years don't remember a time without the bright white fennec tyrant. And in some ways, I think that he's taken for-granted in the fandom. But I suppose there's nothing wrong with that. I will continue to get art of Ethy, even if the reaction is "oh that's nice *moves on*". A lot of the initial excitement to Etheras as a character, I feel, was because he was fresh and new and unique. In the fandom there weren't a lot of villainous characters. Brattish femboy tyrant rulers didn't exist. The ice queen attitude with the bright white simplicity, with the judging yellow eyes. The appetite for equines + fembois was a fairly new trend (arguably started by my OC Jaspian). Femboi dom as a kink, and more.
Once upon a time, this was all new. But over the years other have borrowed and replicated them, and even though Etheras pioneered a lot of these ideas, they are well-trodden at this point. (I still think Etheras does them better tho ;) ).
There's really no way to pioneer new trails without changing Etheras... which is NOT something I am willing to do. I think he is perfect the way he is. And so he will remain, unchanging, even if that means folks will get bored of him.
To explore new directions, I will need new characters. Starting in late 2021, I will introduce several new OCs. Some of you already know the plan for this. (Please do not talk about it!) However, I'm not going to treat that transition the same way as I did with Jaspian (he feels kind-of abandoned, which is something I vowed NOT to do.) After this transition, I *will* continue to play Etheras as my main, and get artwork of him, and more. Maybe I'll even try to bring Jaspian's account back to life.
Anyway, please join me in celebrating 9 years of fennec tyrant rule! A decade next year. My-goodness, where does the time go?
For those of you who love to see the iconic fennec femboi in your feed, thank you. Your loyalty touches my heart, and I appreciate you. And I hope you continue to enjoy my creations.
Thank you, and I hope you have a wonderful 2021,
~ Etheras's player
OOC
Etheras was introduced 9 years ago on January 1, 2012. Time flies, doesn't it? Only 373 uploads later, he's become one of the most recognizable furry characters in the fandom.
At this point, Etheras has lost a lot of his luster in the fandom. He's become a fixture. A lot of furries who have been in the fandom for years don't remember a time without the bright white fennec tyrant. And in some ways, I think that he's taken for-granted in the fandom. But I suppose there's nothing wrong with that. I will continue to get art of Ethy, even if the reaction is "oh that's nice *moves on*". A lot of the initial excitement to Etheras as a character, I feel, was because he was fresh and new and unique. In the fandom there weren't a lot of villainous characters. Brattish femboy tyrant rulers didn't exist. The ice queen attitude with the bright white simplicity, with the judging yellow eyes. The appetite for equines + fembois was a fairly new trend (arguably started by my OC Jaspian). Femboi dom as a kink, and more.
Once upon a time, this was all new. But over the years other have borrowed and replicated them, and even though Etheras pioneered a lot of these ideas, they are well-trodden at this point. (I still think Etheras does them better tho ;) ).
There's really no way to pioneer new trails without changing Etheras... which is NOT something I am willing to do. I think he is perfect the way he is. And so he will remain, unchanging, even if that means folks will get bored of him.
To explore new directions, I will need new characters. Starting in late 2021, I will introduce several new OCs. Some of you already know the plan for this. (Please do not talk about it!) However, I'm not going to treat that transition the same way as I did with Jaspian (he feels kind-of abandoned, which is something I vowed NOT to do.) After this transition, I *will* continue to play Etheras as my main, and get artwork of him, and more. Maybe I'll even try to bring Jaspian's account back to life.
Anyway, please join me in celebrating 9 years of fennec tyrant rule! A decade next year. My-goodness, where does the time go?
For those of you who love to see the iconic fennec femboi in your feed, thank you. Your loyalty touches my heart, and I appreciate you. And I hope you continue to enjoy my creations.
Thank you, and I hope you have a wonderful 2021,
~ Etheras's player
Where is Etheras?
Posted 5 years agoHearken to me, my subjects.
(( OOC ))
I hope all of you are safe and healthy out there.
I'm sure some of you are wondering why there hasn't been any new Etheras artwork posted here in months. (Or maybe not, considering how inconsistent I've been lately about posting art...)
However, its not my usual laziness that's stopped me from posting artwork. Its coronavirus. No, I haven't caught the bug. I just feel like everything in this period of time is somehow tainted with this cloud. I feel like anything I post will be associated with the claustrophobic lonely feeling of everybody being trapped indoors. Even after the pandemic is over, I'm not sure images will be met with positive feels, no-matter how good the art is. And I don't think that's fair to the artist or the piece of artwork to be tarnished by "current events" in this way.
So, while I'm sure any art I post would have gotten more views while everybody is trapped home and out of work, I thought it would be better to hold off until this thing has run its course.
Yes, I am still here, and yes I have a backlog of art to post. I just thought this needed some explanation.
Stay safe and positive out there,
~ Etheras
(( OOC ))
I hope all of you are safe and healthy out there.
I'm sure some of you are wondering why there hasn't been any new Etheras artwork posted here in months. (Or maybe not, considering how inconsistent I've been lately about posting art...)
However, its not my usual laziness that's stopped me from posting artwork. Its coronavirus. No, I haven't caught the bug. I just feel like everything in this period of time is somehow tainted with this cloud. I feel like anything I post will be associated with the claustrophobic lonely feeling of everybody being trapped indoors. Even after the pandemic is over, I'm not sure images will be met with positive feels, no-matter how good the art is. And I don't think that's fair to the artist or the piece of artwork to be tarnished by "current events" in this way.
So, while I'm sure any art I post would have gotten more views while everybody is trapped home and out of work, I thought it would be better to hold off until this thing has run its course.
Yes, I am still here, and yes I have a backlog of art to post. I just thought this needed some explanation.
Stay safe and positive out there,
~ Etheras
8 Years of Etheras
Posted 5 years agoHearken to me, my subjects.
OOC
Etheras was introduced 8 years ago on January 1, 2012. Time flies, doesn't it? Only 366 uploads later, he's become one of the most recognizable furry characters in the fandom.
Perhaps that fame has come and gone. I have a sense that the Etheras character is past his prime in some ways, and I think that's my fault. I haven't been uploading content regularly (details in the previous journal), and so I think the fandom has sort-of "moved on". Maybe I'll do another journal just on this topic, because this post is intended to *celebrate* 8 years of fennec overlord.
This year, no major new milestones, but I want to thank all of you who have stuck with me through the good times and the bad. Your loyalty touches my heart, and I appreciate you. And I'm glad you enjoy the characters and lore that I have made so-far. I hope you like even-more those things come next!
I will try to be better about posting in 2020, and I hope that you will stick with me. :)
So thank you all for your dedication, admiration, and support. I love you all, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy those things that I have planned for this year.
Thanks again, and I hope you have a wonderful 2020!
~ Etheras's player
OOC
Etheras was introduced 8 years ago on January 1, 2012. Time flies, doesn't it? Only 366 uploads later, he's become one of the most recognizable furry characters in the fandom.
Perhaps that fame has come and gone. I have a sense that the Etheras character is past his prime in some ways, and I think that's my fault. I haven't been uploading content regularly (details in the previous journal), and so I think the fandom has sort-of "moved on". Maybe I'll do another journal just on this topic, because this post is intended to *celebrate* 8 years of fennec overlord.
This year, no major new milestones, but I want to thank all of you who have stuck with me through the good times and the bad. Your loyalty touches my heart, and I appreciate you. And I'm glad you enjoy the characters and lore that I have made so-far. I hope you like even-more those things come next!
I will try to be better about posting in 2020, and I hope that you will stick with me. :)
So thank you all for your dedication, admiration, and support. I love you all, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy those things that I have planned for this year.
Thanks again, and I hope you have a wonderful 2020!
~ Etheras's player
2019 in-review
Posted 6 years agoSome reflections on 2019 from your adorable overlord.
(OOC of course)
2019 was a year of ups and downs for me. I made large strides towards independence. Bought a nice (but affordable) condo in a place that I love, saved up a ton of cash, and then towards the end of the year, I left my day job.
Things weren't good there anyway. I had sort-of mentally checked-out long ago, and my apathy was affecting my work quality. Most of my spare moments, I was thinking about video games. An idea would pop into my head for a game concept or mechanic and I'd have to write it down before it was lost. Or I'd think of a solution to a coding problem unrelated to my day-job. After awhile, I realized I just didn't care about my day job anymore, and every morning I would leave my apartment wondering what the hell I was doing with my life. I kept setting goals, "I'll quit in a month," or "right after labor day". After crunching some numbers, I convinced myself December was the best time, and finally I stopped procrastinating and resigned.
I'm still not sure if quitting was a good idea. At the time, it seemed like the obvious move. But after I gave notice, I began to second-guess myself. "What if I didn't save enough?" and "What if nobody likes the games I make?" And the gaming industry is difficult. There are so many well-funded, well-connected, and well-staffed firms out there competing for the same eyes as my creations. But I want to work on my own things. I've been writing software for other people for a long time now. When is it my turn to make my ideas real? I realize that's a bit selfish, but what am I supposed to do? Sit in a cube until I'm 65, all my energy spent, all my ideas forgotten? And finally build these things that I am passionate about then?
I realize now I've lived a very tracked life. For the most part, I've done what people told me that I should do. Quitting my soul-destroying corporate job feels in some ways like the first real decision I've ever made.
Sorry if this journal seems particularly dower. You all don't come here to listen to me complaining. Etheras should be a fun escapist diversion. But my personal situation has affected Etheras too. You may have noticed I've been posting a lot less artwork. I've been in kind of a funky place emotionally, feeling trapped by those golden handcuffs of corporate America, and then the more-recent uncertainty of independence. Its hard to take a break. Lately I've been getting a nagging sensation whenever I take a breather that I should be working and turning my indie studio profitable. Also because I have to be careful with my finances, I will be commissioning a lot less artwork in 2020.
On the positive side, I do have a bit of a backlog of Etheras artwork to post, so I shouldn't run out of unpublished material. If the game company starts to show a profit, I will resume buying artwork of-course.
But, enough mopey fennec. Lets talk about what happened in 2019.
ETHERAS CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENTS
... lots of new artwork.
... a new Etheras comic (not yet posted! Will post in 2020) :)
... conquered some people.
... subjugated some stuff.
ETHERAS PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS
... I own my own place! (yaaaay)
... Doing GameDev full-time now (yaaaay)
IN THE WORLD
... Biggest news I can think of is the UK elections, cementing their departure from the EU. I have mixed feelings about this. I do think local sovereignty is preferable to giant multinational organizations with little responsiveness to the electorate, but I am concerned that when the UK pulls out, the EU could collapse (maybe not right away, but within a few years). Once again: I have no love for multinational organizations, so a collapse of the EU is probably a good thing for the history of civilization. However, I don't see any way that collapse of the EU won't cause a global economic catastrophe, which is going to hurt a lot of people. That worries me, especially since I will be trying to live off of my fledgling game studio... making products as non-essential as digital entertainment.
... Starhopper - Yes, I am am a giant space nerd. The Starhopper explosion was a bit sad, but the speed at-which they constructed mk1 was astonishing, and fun to watch. Also: let's not forget Starlink.
... In other Elon news: Cybertruck. I was initially very disappointed, but I've begun to warm to that ugly beast. I'm kinda sold on it now, but I'd have to convince my condo association to install EV ports, and I'm likely to get pushback on that. At the same time, they don't ship until 2021, so ... plenty of time to try and convince them.
... A decent year for movies. Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - both impressed me significantly on their merits as films. Is Hollywood finally starting to turn it around and make good films once again? One can only hope.
... 2019 was a bit of a disaster again for video games, though probably not the same "train wreck" level of carnage as 2018. 2018 was plagued with a lot of overhyped letdowns. 2019 seems plagued with a lot of delay (where's my DOOM Eternal, Id?) We did see the remaster of Modern Warfare, which was apparently pretty good, and Death Stranding. But most of the titles that interest me are congregating in March 2020. Halflife: Alyx was announced, Doom: Eternal, Animal Crossing, etc. Shall we take bets on whether they are delayed again?
... TV/Streaming - The Amazon-Funded "Expanse" is looking polished and slick with their huge cash-injection from Jeff Bezos. Loving it so-far (I'm about halfway through season 4). HBO wrapped up Game of Thrones in a thoroughly disappointing fashion. I think the story arc was correct, but the dialog and pacing towards the end felt rushed. Maybe I'll do a journal or a video on where/how I feel that failed, now that I'm officially in the entertainment biz.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... Lets face it: I was horrible about my commitments last year. (again-again-again)
... Didn't release any video game that I had promised. (again-again-again)
... Etheras.com is still a mostly-blank page. (again-again-again)
... I also failed to give an adequate presence to Etheras here on FA. (Even worse than last year!) I'll probably do a journal on this in the coming months to try and talk about it... if I can find the time.
... Really, I didn't deliver on any thing that I promised last year ( sorry! #badfenn ) :(
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2020
.. Okay, I really really REALLY REALLY REEEALLY REEEEEEEALY need to release at least 1 major video game title (non-furry). Possibly as many as 3. I MEAN it this time!
.. I need to work on my presence both online and offline, so that I can network for my game studio. I've made several inroads on this already, but I really need to have a professional network firmly established prior to launching our first game.
.. I probably won't work on Etheras.com . I just won't have the time in 2020 (sorry)
.. why does this list look identical to last year? Its like 2019 (or 2018, or 2017 for that matter) never happened. o.o Now that I'm on my own, I hope to make real progress on these things.
.. and of course, lots of Etheras artwork (posted, anyway)
Should be an exciting year! Hope you'll stay with me ^.^
Onward!
~ Lord Etheras
(OOC of course)
2019 was a year of ups and downs for me. I made large strides towards independence. Bought a nice (but affordable) condo in a place that I love, saved up a ton of cash, and then towards the end of the year, I left my day job.
Things weren't good there anyway. I had sort-of mentally checked-out long ago, and my apathy was affecting my work quality. Most of my spare moments, I was thinking about video games. An idea would pop into my head for a game concept or mechanic and I'd have to write it down before it was lost. Or I'd think of a solution to a coding problem unrelated to my day-job. After awhile, I realized I just didn't care about my day job anymore, and every morning I would leave my apartment wondering what the hell I was doing with my life. I kept setting goals, "I'll quit in a month," or "right after labor day". After crunching some numbers, I convinced myself December was the best time, and finally I stopped procrastinating and resigned.
I'm still not sure if quitting was a good idea. At the time, it seemed like the obvious move. But after I gave notice, I began to second-guess myself. "What if I didn't save enough?" and "What if nobody likes the games I make?" And the gaming industry is difficult. There are so many well-funded, well-connected, and well-staffed firms out there competing for the same eyes as my creations. But I want to work on my own things. I've been writing software for other people for a long time now. When is it my turn to make my ideas real? I realize that's a bit selfish, but what am I supposed to do? Sit in a cube until I'm 65, all my energy spent, all my ideas forgotten? And finally build these things that I am passionate about then?
I realize now I've lived a very tracked life. For the most part, I've done what people told me that I should do. Quitting my soul-destroying corporate job feels in some ways like the first real decision I've ever made.
Sorry if this journal seems particularly dower. You all don't come here to listen to me complaining. Etheras should be a fun escapist diversion. But my personal situation has affected Etheras too. You may have noticed I've been posting a lot less artwork. I've been in kind of a funky place emotionally, feeling trapped by those golden handcuffs of corporate America, and then the more-recent uncertainty of independence. Its hard to take a break. Lately I've been getting a nagging sensation whenever I take a breather that I should be working and turning my indie studio profitable. Also because I have to be careful with my finances, I will be commissioning a lot less artwork in 2020.
On the positive side, I do have a bit of a backlog of Etheras artwork to post, so I shouldn't run out of unpublished material. If the game company starts to show a profit, I will resume buying artwork of-course.
But, enough mopey fennec. Lets talk about what happened in 2019.
ETHERAS CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENTS
... lots of new artwork.
... a new Etheras comic (not yet posted! Will post in 2020) :)
... conquered some people.
... subjugated some stuff.
ETHERAS PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS
... I own my own place! (yaaaay)
... Doing GameDev full-time now (yaaaay)
IN THE WORLD
... Biggest news I can think of is the UK elections, cementing their departure from the EU. I have mixed feelings about this. I do think local sovereignty is preferable to giant multinational organizations with little responsiveness to the electorate, but I am concerned that when the UK pulls out, the EU could collapse (maybe not right away, but within a few years). Once again: I have no love for multinational organizations, so a collapse of the EU is probably a good thing for the history of civilization. However, I don't see any way that collapse of the EU won't cause a global economic catastrophe, which is going to hurt a lot of people. That worries me, especially since I will be trying to live off of my fledgling game studio... making products as non-essential as digital entertainment.
... Starhopper - Yes, I am am a giant space nerd. The Starhopper explosion was a bit sad, but the speed at-which they constructed mk1 was astonishing, and fun to watch. Also: let's not forget Starlink.
... In other Elon news: Cybertruck. I was initially very disappointed, but I've begun to warm to that ugly beast. I'm kinda sold on it now, but I'd have to convince my condo association to install EV ports, and I'm likely to get pushback on that. At the same time, they don't ship until 2021, so ... plenty of time to try and convince them.
... A decent year for movies. Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - both impressed me significantly on their merits as films. Is Hollywood finally starting to turn it around and make good films once again? One can only hope.
... 2019 was a bit of a disaster again for video games, though probably not the same "train wreck" level of carnage as 2018. 2018 was plagued with a lot of overhyped letdowns. 2019 seems plagued with a lot of delay (where's my DOOM Eternal, Id?) We did see the remaster of Modern Warfare, which was apparently pretty good, and Death Stranding. But most of the titles that interest me are congregating in March 2020. Halflife: Alyx was announced, Doom: Eternal, Animal Crossing, etc. Shall we take bets on whether they are delayed again?
... TV/Streaming - The Amazon-Funded "Expanse" is looking polished and slick with their huge cash-injection from Jeff Bezos. Loving it so-far (I'm about halfway through season 4). HBO wrapped up Game of Thrones in a thoroughly disappointing fashion. I think the story arc was correct, but the dialog and pacing towards the end felt rushed. Maybe I'll do a journal or a video on where/how I feel that failed, now that I'm officially in the entertainment biz.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... Lets face it: I was horrible about my commitments last year. (again-again-again)
... Didn't release any video game that I had promised. (again-again-again)
... Etheras.com is still a mostly-blank page. (again-again-again)
... I also failed to give an adequate presence to Etheras here on FA. (Even worse than last year!) I'll probably do a journal on this in the coming months to try and talk about it... if I can find the time.
... Really, I didn't deliver on any thing that I promised last year ( sorry! #badfenn ) :(
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2020
.. Okay, I really really REALLY REALLY REEEALLY REEEEEEEALY need to release at least 1 major video game title (non-furry). Possibly as many as 3. I MEAN it this time!
.. I need to work on my presence both online and offline, so that I can network for my game studio. I've made several inroads on this already, but I really need to have a professional network firmly established prior to launching our first game.
.. I probably won't work on Etheras.com . I just won't have the time in 2020 (sorry)
.. why does this list look identical to last year? Its like 2019 (or 2018, or 2017 for that matter) never happened. o.o Now that I'm on my own, I hope to make real progress on these things.
.. and of course, lots of Etheras artwork (posted, anyway)
Should be an exciting year! Hope you'll stay with me ^.^
Onward!
~ Lord Etheras
INFO: Why I no longer attend furry cons
Posted 6 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
(( OOC ))
I get asked often which furry conventions that I attend, and I thought it might be best to just write a journal entry so I can lay out my thoughts completely.
I do not attend any furry conventions anymore.
Its not that I have anything against furry cons - some of my happiest memories are from conventions. I guess I just "grew out" of them. But it was probably my own fault.
I'm a doer. I'm not the type of person who goes to a con just to sit idly by and enjoy the con. I want to host panels, host parties, I want to participate. But then suddenly you aren't just going there to have fun. You have duties, and a convention takes on a role like a job or obligation.
I found myself going to more and more conventions, throwing ever more elaborate parties and events, always trying to one-up the last one, and... while I had a lot of fun with these... the stress of making materials, buying party goods, planning and logistics, then getting to a con, setting up events, and tearing down - it wears on you after awhile. And when I thought my events were sub-optimal, I would feel guilty.
But paradoxically, I could no longer enjoy the conventions without my own contributions. I kept thinking about what I would do differently and "wouldn't it be really cool if...."
So I just don't go anymore. I will either stress myself out, or be disappointed. Throw in the expense and the drama that inevitably follows packs of furries, and suddenly it seems like a better idea to take normal vacations and use the money you save to commission art.
... at least that's my opinion. What's your's? Let me know down below!
~ Lord Etheras
(( OOC ))
I get asked often which furry conventions that I attend, and I thought it might be best to just write a journal entry so I can lay out my thoughts completely.
I do not attend any furry conventions anymore.
Its not that I have anything against furry cons - some of my happiest memories are from conventions. I guess I just "grew out" of them. But it was probably my own fault.
I'm a doer. I'm not the type of person who goes to a con just to sit idly by and enjoy the con. I want to host panels, host parties, I want to participate. But then suddenly you aren't just going there to have fun. You have duties, and a convention takes on a role like a job or obligation.
I found myself going to more and more conventions, throwing ever more elaborate parties and events, always trying to one-up the last one, and... while I had a lot of fun with these... the stress of making materials, buying party goods, planning and logistics, then getting to a con, setting up events, and tearing down - it wears on you after awhile. And when I thought my events were sub-optimal, I would feel guilty.
But paradoxically, I could no longer enjoy the conventions without my own contributions. I kept thinking about what I would do differently and "wouldn't it be really cool if...."
So I just don't go anymore. I will either stress myself out, or be disappointed. Throw in the expense and the drama that inevitably follows packs of furries, and suddenly it seems like a better idea to take normal vacations and use the money you save to commission art.
... at least that's my opinion. What's your's? Let me know down below!
~ Lord Etheras
Resurgence of Furry Sites post-Tumblr & say NO to Twitter
Posted 6 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
((OOC))
Over the years, the "furry media" sites (FurAffinity, SoFurry, InkBunny, Weasyl, etc) have slowly but surely lost influence among furry circles to more "mainstream" sites and services. Some of the lost traffic was because of scandals, but some of it was just out of convenience (mobile app integration, for example). Chief among these was Tumblr. I saw a lot of furry art and artists uproot from furry-controlled sites and move to Tumblr, and felt that was unwise, not only for those persons, but for the fandom as a whole.
Like it or not, furry is always going to be pretty weird to "normies" because - let's face it - we're a little weird. So I don't see why we would ever want to place our work, our presence online, and our communities, in the hands of non-furries (or at-least those who don't have a stake in defending the fandom - obviously IMVU are not furries, but they have money invested in FA and want to see it succeed).
When Tumblr pulled all adult content, many furry artists and commissioners lost large chunks of their collections. Of course they probably had backups of the art itself, but these people cultivated a community, they had comments and suggestions and favorites in their collections - all wiped out.
I've seen a bit of an uptick in traffic since, especially on FurAffinity. I think that some furries realized their mistake and are coming back to the furry media sites, and I think that is a good thing. I think we should keep it in-house. Sites by furries, for furries.
But I've also seen a lot of Tumblr exiles going to Twitter. Why do this? You're just setting yourselves up to be the victims of the next purge. Tumblr wasn't the first, and probably won't be the last. People forget that furries (going by their furnames) once had profiles on Facebook until FB decided that their services do not extend to fictional characters.
So I guess that's my takeaway. I would like so see the fandom congregating around community sites once more, and its probably a good thing (big picture view) that Tumblr purged adult furry artwork. But I think it isn't so great that so many just hopped over to the next big faceless, normie website. So I think we should encourage them to _come home_ .
For those of you who do want to follow me on twitter, I'm @etherasfox , but I hardly ever use it. Here is still probably the best place. :)
Anyway - thanks for reading.
~ Lord Etheras
((OOC))
Over the years, the "furry media" sites (FurAffinity, SoFurry, InkBunny, Weasyl, etc) have slowly but surely lost influence among furry circles to more "mainstream" sites and services. Some of the lost traffic was because of scandals, but some of it was just out of convenience (mobile app integration, for example). Chief among these was Tumblr. I saw a lot of furry art and artists uproot from furry-controlled sites and move to Tumblr, and felt that was unwise, not only for those persons, but for the fandom as a whole.
Like it or not, furry is always going to be pretty weird to "normies" because - let's face it - we're a little weird. So I don't see why we would ever want to place our work, our presence online, and our communities, in the hands of non-furries (or at-least those who don't have a stake in defending the fandom - obviously IMVU are not furries, but they have money invested in FA and want to see it succeed).
When Tumblr pulled all adult content, many furry artists and commissioners lost large chunks of their collections. Of course they probably had backups of the art itself, but these people cultivated a community, they had comments and suggestions and favorites in their collections - all wiped out.
I've seen a bit of an uptick in traffic since, especially on FurAffinity. I think that some furries realized their mistake and are coming back to the furry media sites, and I think that is a good thing. I think we should keep it in-house. Sites by furries, for furries.
But I've also seen a lot of Tumblr exiles going to Twitter. Why do this? You're just setting yourselves up to be the victims of the next purge. Tumblr wasn't the first, and probably won't be the last. People forget that furries (going by their furnames) once had profiles on Facebook until FB decided that their services do not extend to fictional characters.
So I guess that's my takeaway. I would like so see the fandom congregating around community sites once more, and its probably a good thing (big picture view) that Tumblr purged adult furry artwork. But I think it isn't so great that so many just hopped over to the next big faceless, normie website. So I think we should encourage them to _come home_ .
For those of you who do want to follow me on twitter, I'm @etherasfox , but I hardly ever use it. Here is still probably the best place. :)
Anyway - thanks for reading.
~ Lord Etheras
DISCUSSION: On the Sanctity of Fursonas
Posted 6 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
(( OOC ))
I threatened a few weeks back that I would post my thoughts on this topic, and so here it is! I think that many of you already know what I am going to say here, since I've written about it in the past, but I feel like this is something important enough to deserve its own journal.
Fursonas are sacred: they are not just characters spit out by some big media giant. We put ourselves into them. But not just ourselves, but the best of ourselves: distilled, honed, and idealized. Our fursonas aren't just a piece of us, but the creature that we wish that we could be.
This is why I am so offended when I see character theft. It is different to steal and reuse someone's fursona than it is to pretend to be Krystal or PinkyPie. Its like stealing someone's face and going around pretending to be them - but it is even-worse. Since a fursona is an idealized form of that person, its more like stealing that someone's dream, or their soul.
Stealing a PinkyPie or Krystal, unethical as it may be, is less damaging. These are characters that everybody recognizes and so everybody knows that the thief is not-actually this character. The character's canon is defined elsewhere, and so they are untarnishable. But a fursona can be defiled because the canon is created by the owner, and you can't tell who is sitting at the keyboard on the other end of an interaction.
I also disapprove of "swap outs" in art. I've been offered, in the past, the option of replacing a character in another picture with Etheras because the artist and commissioner got into a fight. That offer was underhanded and wrong. Similarly: an artist has previously threatened to ink over art of my characters and sell it as another character... as-if there's nothing to a character but lines on a piece of paper. The attitude captured, the posture, the look, their activity - all the things that transform artwork from a picture into a character that feels like they have a life of their own - these things matter.
And so, I consider fursonas a sacred thing. We should all be more careful not to use a character's likeness if it doesn't belong to us, even in artwork (even in gift art! Are you sure the character's owner would be ok with this art? Are you sure? Maybe you should double-check.) And for artists: it is underhanded to simply replace one character with another as-if they're interchangeable. Let us be respectful of other people's cherished ideas, and imaginative creations.
( /soapbox )
Thanks for reading!
~ Lord Etheras
(( OOC ))
I threatened a few weeks back that I would post my thoughts on this topic, and so here it is! I think that many of you already know what I am going to say here, since I've written about it in the past, but I feel like this is something important enough to deserve its own journal.
Fursonas are sacred: they are not just characters spit out by some big media giant. We put ourselves into them. But not just ourselves, but the best of ourselves: distilled, honed, and idealized. Our fursonas aren't just a piece of us, but the creature that we wish that we could be.
This is why I am so offended when I see character theft. It is different to steal and reuse someone's fursona than it is to pretend to be Krystal or PinkyPie. Its like stealing someone's face and going around pretending to be them - but it is even-worse. Since a fursona is an idealized form of that person, its more like stealing that someone's dream, or their soul.
Stealing a PinkyPie or Krystal, unethical as it may be, is less damaging. These are characters that everybody recognizes and so everybody knows that the thief is not-actually this character. The character's canon is defined elsewhere, and so they are untarnishable. But a fursona can be defiled because the canon is created by the owner, and you can't tell who is sitting at the keyboard on the other end of an interaction.
I also disapprove of "swap outs" in art. I've been offered, in the past, the option of replacing a character in another picture with Etheras because the artist and commissioner got into a fight. That offer was underhanded and wrong. Similarly: an artist has previously threatened to ink over art of my characters and sell it as another character... as-if there's nothing to a character but lines on a piece of paper. The attitude captured, the posture, the look, their activity - all the things that transform artwork from a picture into a character that feels like they have a life of their own - these things matter.
And so, I consider fursonas a sacred thing. We should all be more careful not to use a character's likeness if it doesn't belong to us, even in artwork (even in gift art! Are you sure the character's owner would be ok with this art? Are you sure? Maybe you should double-check.) And for artists: it is underhanded to simply replace one character with another as-if they're interchangeable. Let us be respectful of other people's cherished ideas, and imaginative creations.
( /soapbox )
Thanks for reading!
~ Lord Etheras
INFO: Plans for 2019
Posted 7 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
OOC
This post is going to look a lot like last year's plans since I missed almost all of my goals again. I apologize for that, but I really am making extensive efforts to achieve these goals, even if I never seem to hit any of them.
1. Publish a damn game. Yes this is the same game that I was talking about last year, and while I might still insist that it is "so close" to being done, that's what I was saying last year. So what happened? I changed a bunch of stuff. While I think these changes will be beneficial to the game, I lost a lot of progress in doing-so. And this isn't the first time that I've done this. Changing things has delayed the game before. I think that I need to be better at deciding finer elements of the game before the first line of code is written, and then sticking-to that plan. Live and Learn, I suppose. And yes - I have learned quite a bit about making games these past 2 years.
In other news, I did start preliminary moves on "the furry game", which I am planning to ship in 2021. I managed to secure a very desirable trademark - so it will have a cool name - and I'm working with several artists on species and character designs for the universe.
2. Continued Etheras art. I mentioned in a previous journal that the furry fandom is becoming less of a central theme in my life, but that I am not giving it up. I have plenty of Etheras art backlog to post, and I will continue to commission artists. One change, however, is that I found that I am commissioning more "tried and true" artists. The number of times that I've been burned by artists who accept commissions and then take years (literally) to finish them, has caused me to shy away from seeking new talent, and instead to reuse artists that I know will deliver in a timely manner. Call it professionalism, I suppose.
3. YouTube presence. I started a few more YouTube channels. I'm not sure what to do with them exactly. The one for the game company seems obvious, but I want to do several others - mostly gaming-related. Game news, Lets Plays, Tips and Tricks for indie gamedevs, etc. I'm so inundated with gaming culture at this point (because of the company) that it makes sense to start collating and sharing the things I find valuable. The question is - how do I present the data? It seems obvious that most viewers interested in Lets Plays are not interesting in programming advice. So how do I break it up in such a way that I can deliver the channels that people want, while simultaneously avoiding running afoul of YouTube's dreaded algorithm - which promotes channels that upload at least 1 10-minute episode per day. YouTube is supposed to be supplemental, but if I have 3 channels (not-including the official company channel) that's 30 minutes of recording per day. Once you include editing, it becomes a major commitment. I'm wondering if it will really be worth my time, or if I should be spending all that time actually making games rather than talking about them.
4. Buying a Home. Rent is my single largest expense, and while I love my apartment, I kinda hate city living. So it seems crazy to be throwing away thousands of dollars per month on a place I'm not that fond-of, which I won't even own (no equity). Even if a mortgage is the same price as my apartment, at least I'd own something at the end.
5. Continued Journals. I might shy away from journal-ing so much about IC stuff. To be honest, Etheras is a fairly simple character, and I keep running into roadblocks as I try to flesh out the universe. A big part of the problem is that Etheras has pretty-much gone as far as I think he can go. I can't make a game about him, he's too damaged by all the adult content for wider public appeal. I've mentioned in the past that I want to do more IC journals and then never-did. I'm going to go back on that, and state outright: journals from now on are likely to be more OOC.
These posts tend to be a little dry, so sorry about that... But yeah, thanks for reading! ^.^
Cheers,
~ Etheras
OOC
This post is going to look a lot like last year's plans since I missed almost all of my goals again. I apologize for that, but I really am making extensive efforts to achieve these goals, even if I never seem to hit any of them.
1. Publish a damn game. Yes this is the same game that I was talking about last year, and while I might still insist that it is "so close" to being done, that's what I was saying last year. So what happened? I changed a bunch of stuff. While I think these changes will be beneficial to the game, I lost a lot of progress in doing-so. And this isn't the first time that I've done this. Changing things has delayed the game before. I think that I need to be better at deciding finer elements of the game before the first line of code is written, and then sticking-to that plan. Live and Learn, I suppose. And yes - I have learned quite a bit about making games these past 2 years.
In other news, I did start preliminary moves on "the furry game", which I am planning to ship in 2021. I managed to secure a very desirable trademark - so it will have a cool name - and I'm working with several artists on species and character designs for the universe.
2. Continued Etheras art. I mentioned in a previous journal that the furry fandom is becoming less of a central theme in my life, but that I am not giving it up. I have plenty of Etheras art backlog to post, and I will continue to commission artists. One change, however, is that I found that I am commissioning more "tried and true" artists. The number of times that I've been burned by artists who accept commissions and then take years (literally) to finish them, has caused me to shy away from seeking new talent, and instead to reuse artists that I know will deliver in a timely manner. Call it professionalism, I suppose.
3. YouTube presence. I started a few more YouTube channels. I'm not sure what to do with them exactly. The one for the game company seems obvious, but I want to do several others - mostly gaming-related. Game news, Lets Plays, Tips and Tricks for indie gamedevs, etc. I'm so inundated with gaming culture at this point (because of the company) that it makes sense to start collating and sharing the things I find valuable. The question is - how do I present the data? It seems obvious that most viewers interested in Lets Plays are not interesting in programming advice. So how do I break it up in such a way that I can deliver the channels that people want, while simultaneously avoiding running afoul of YouTube's dreaded algorithm - which promotes channels that upload at least 1 10-minute episode per day. YouTube is supposed to be supplemental, but if I have 3 channels (not-including the official company channel) that's 30 minutes of recording per day. Once you include editing, it becomes a major commitment. I'm wondering if it will really be worth my time, or if I should be spending all that time actually making games rather than talking about them.
4. Buying a Home. Rent is my single largest expense, and while I love my apartment, I kinda hate city living. So it seems crazy to be throwing away thousands of dollars per month on a place I'm not that fond-of, which I won't even own (no equity). Even if a mortgage is the same price as my apartment, at least I'd own something at the end.
5. Continued Journals. I might shy away from journal-ing so much about IC stuff. To be honest, Etheras is a fairly simple character, and I keep running into roadblocks as I try to flesh out the universe. A big part of the problem is that Etheras has pretty-much gone as far as I think he can go. I can't make a game about him, he's too damaged by all the adult content for wider public appeal. I've mentioned in the past that I want to do more IC journals and then never-did. I'm going to go back on that, and state outright: journals from now on are likely to be more OOC.
These posts tend to be a little dry, so sorry about that... But yeah, thanks for reading! ^.^
Cheers,
~ Etheras
7 Years of Etheras
Posted 7 years agoHearken to me, my subjects.
OOC
Wow! I first introduced Etheras 7 years ago. How crazy is that? 344 uploads later, and going strong.
This year, we passed 10,000 watchers and 200,000 views. Etheras has become iconic, well-recognized, and appreciated throughout the fandom - and I have all of you to thank for this. Its been crazy to see the support and enthusiasm from "his subjects" throughout the tumult of furry drama and culture shifts. I like to think that we ride above all that and it doesn't affect this group in-particular.
Anyway, I really appreciate your continued support and engagement. It has been a pleasure to share my fennec character(s) with you, and I plan to share much more in 2019. I hope that you will stick with me for what comes next!
So thank you all for your dedication, admiration, and support. I love you all, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy those things that I have planned for this year.
Thanks again, and I hope you have a wonderful 2019!
~ Etheras's player
OOC
Wow! I first introduced Etheras 7 years ago. How crazy is that? 344 uploads later, and going strong.
This year, we passed 10,000 watchers and 200,000 views. Etheras has become iconic, well-recognized, and appreciated throughout the fandom - and I have all of you to thank for this. Its been crazy to see the support and enthusiasm from "his subjects" throughout the tumult of furry drama and culture shifts. I like to think that we ride above all that and it doesn't affect this group in-particular.
Anyway, I really appreciate your continued support and engagement. It has been a pleasure to share my fennec character(s) with you, and I plan to share much more in 2019. I hope that you will stick with me for what comes next!
So thank you all for your dedication, admiration, and support. I love you all, and I hope that you will continue to enjoy those things that I have planned for this year.
Thanks again, and I hope you have a wonderful 2019!
~ Etheras's player
2018 in review
Posted 7 years agoSome reflections on 2018 from your adorable overlord.
Again this year, I spent most of my efforts on non-furry things. In-general, I've realized that the furry fandom is becoming less important to me. I spend less time on FA and my furry Twitter is almost entirely abandoned these days. I spend more time reading sci-fi novels, playing video games, going to dinner with non-furs, and looking at real-estate and other "normie" things.
In all sincerity though, I do feel as-if I am losing something valuable. I don't actually want to abandon furry, but to be honest, I'm not sure why its losing its appeal for me, so I'm unsure how to fix it. In any case, I still don't plan to abandon Etheras. Same answer as last year: Barring any unfortunate circumstances, I intend to take Etheras as far into the future as I can. But unlike last year, I can see a glimmer of a future where I cease to publish Etheras artwork. It is a possibility.
But, this is supposed to be a post about reflections on 2018, not future plans. So! Lets talk about 2018 :)
ETHERAS CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENTS
... lots of new artwork.
... a new Etheras comic (not yet posted! Will post in 2019) :)
... pushing Etheras much harder on his original concept and fleshing out more about his realm and backstory.
... conquered some people.
... subjugated some stuff.
... crossed the 10K watchers milestone (furaffinity).
... crossed the 200K pageviews milestone (furaffinity)
ETHERAS PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS
... working hard on video games. Nothing to announce yet, but I'm really hoping to launch or at least announce soon. Its the game-dev story that goes on forever (but still not as long as Star Citizen). I still haven't shipped the game that I was teasing last year. Unfortunately my lofty expectations have clashed recently with a bit of reality. Whenever that happens, reality tends to win.
... continued to take measures to cut down on character theft. Finally my efforts seem to be making progress. Unfortunately, these efforts include limiting the spread of artwork, and even to ask some artists not to post Etheras art publicly. This might be part of the reason why I'm losing interest in the fandom. The character / art theft problem is an epidemic, and many furs side with the thieves rather than creators, especially for RP accounts. The fandom should support its creatives rather than its thieves, if we want a vibrant fandom that makes lots of good stuff.
... posted a bunch of new journals. I need to get better at posting regularly.
... buying property. Getting sick of shelling out cash for an apartment that I don't own at the end of the pay period. I found a place that I like better than where I am staying now, which is also cheaper, and will build equity for me. My hope is to move in before the summer, and use the leftover cash to hire more staff for my video game company.
IN THE WORLD
... I really got into the PewDiePie vs T-Series meme. While I think its inevitable that corporations will take over YouTube, it doesn't seem like it will be "You"-Tube anymore. I kinda like the idea of some Swedish guy making videos in his room with a webcam being #1, and I think that ordinary people should rally and try and keep him there. So far, it has worked! So... Subscribe to PewDiePie :)
... Falcon Heavy launch - so impressive. Looking back, the launch seems a long time ago, but it was this year.
... Another terrible year for movies. Hollywood has lost the ability to make decent films. Everything is formulaic cookie-cutter sameness. The last movie I genuinely enjoyed was Zootopia, and I'm sure that furry influenced that. That last movie that I saw where I left the theater feeling as though I had experienced art was 2009's "Inglourious Basterds". I might just stop seeing movies. My time would be better-spent reminding the world what real art looks-like with my video games.
... Speaking of-which, its been sort-of a lackluster year for video games as well. Fallout76 isn't great, but its not as bad as everybody is saying. I'm genuinely enjoying it, but it would have been better as a single-player with NPCs. This year has been the year of AAA game flops, with Battlefield-V and Black Ops 4 both underwhelming fans, as did Fallout76. The only AAA that didn't flop was Red Dead 2, and I don't have a console :( . (though there are rumors that it will be out on PC).
... While movies seem to be stagnating, so is streaming. Netflix and Amazon have gotten extremely cookie-cutter too. In their arms race to win the streaming crown, quality has plummeted, and resulted in a bunch of cancellations this year.
... TV continues to die off. It seems like streaming is the future. I hope they get their act together. This year I discovered "The Expanse" and I am delighted that Amazon bought the show.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... Lets face it: I was horrible about my commitments last year. (again-again)
... Didn't release any video game that I had promised. (again-again)
... Etheras.com is still a mostly-blank page. (again-again)
.. no new music. I've pretty-much given up on this. My hard drive developed bad sectors this year and the effort required to reinstall all my now-outdated music software just doesn't seem worth-it. I was never that great of a musician to begin-with, and so-many other things are vying for my time.
... did not complete the Etheras novel that I spoke of last year. This will also be canceled. The Etheras novel that I had in-mind was non-canonical, and to avoid confusion and maybe broaden interest, I'm removing Etheras from it entirely and making the characters humans (boo, hiss, I know, sorry)
... I also failed to give an adequate presence to Etheras here on FA. I'll probably do a journal on this in the coming months to try and talk-out my waning interest in furry. Maybe I'm just too busy, and once I have a game or two shipped, furry will return. Who knows.
... Really, I didn't deliver on any thing that I promised last year ( sorry! #badfenn ) :(
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2019
.. Okay, I really really REALLY REALLY need to release at least 1 major video game title (non-furry). Possibly as many as 3. I mean it this time!
.. launch of www.etheras.com - I know, I know. Its taking forever, and I know I promised to have something up by the end of 2018. Believe it or not, I am actually pretty close to launching. Just having trouble finding the time to finish it.
.. why does this list look identical to last year? Its like 2018 (or 2017, for that matter) never happened. o.o
.. and of course, lots of Etheras artwork
Should be an exciting year! Hope you'll stay with me ^.^
Thanks,
~ Lord Etheras
Again this year, I spent most of my efforts on non-furry things. In-general, I've realized that the furry fandom is becoming less important to me. I spend less time on FA and my furry Twitter is almost entirely abandoned these days. I spend more time reading sci-fi novels, playing video games, going to dinner with non-furs, and looking at real-estate and other "normie" things.
In all sincerity though, I do feel as-if I am losing something valuable. I don't actually want to abandon furry, but to be honest, I'm not sure why its losing its appeal for me, so I'm unsure how to fix it. In any case, I still don't plan to abandon Etheras. Same answer as last year: Barring any unfortunate circumstances, I intend to take Etheras as far into the future as I can. But unlike last year, I can see a glimmer of a future where I cease to publish Etheras artwork. It is a possibility.
But, this is supposed to be a post about reflections on 2018, not future plans. So! Lets talk about 2018 :)
ETHERAS CHARACTER ACHIEVEMENTS
... lots of new artwork.
... a new Etheras comic (not yet posted! Will post in 2019) :)
... pushing Etheras much harder on his original concept and fleshing out more about his realm and backstory.
... conquered some people.
... subjugated some stuff.
... crossed the 10K watchers milestone (furaffinity).
... crossed the 200K pageviews milestone (furaffinity)
ETHERAS PLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS
... working hard on video games. Nothing to announce yet, but I'm really hoping to launch or at least announce soon. Its the game-dev story that goes on forever (but still not as long as Star Citizen). I still haven't shipped the game that I was teasing last year. Unfortunately my lofty expectations have clashed recently with a bit of reality. Whenever that happens, reality tends to win.
... continued to take measures to cut down on character theft. Finally my efforts seem to be making progress. Unfortunately, these efforts include limiting the spread of artwork, and even to ask some artists not to post Etheras art publicly. This might be part of the reason why I'm losing interest in the fandom. The character / art theft problem is an epidemic, and many furs side with the thieves rather than creators, especially for RP accounts. The fandom should support its creatives rather than its thieves, if we want a vibrant fandom that makes lots of good stuff.
... posted a bunch of new journals. I need to get better at posting regularly.
... buying property. Getting sick of shelling out cash for an apartment that I don't own at the end of the pay period. I found a place that I like better than where I am staying now, which is also cheaper, and will build equity for me. My hope is to move in before the summer, and use the leftover cash to hire more staff for my video game company.
IN THE WORLD
... I really got into the PewDiePie vs T-Series meme. While I think its inevitable that corporations will take over YouTube, it doesn't seem like it will be "You"-Tube anymore. I kinda like the idea of some Swedish guy making videos in his room with a webcam being #1, and I think that ordinary people should rally and try and keep him there. So far, it has worked! So... Subscribe to PewDiePie :)
... Falcon Heavy launch - so impressive. Looking back, the launch seems a long time ago, but it was this year.
... Another terrible year for movies. Hollywood has lost the ability to make decent films. Everything is formulaic cookie-cutter sameness. The last movie I genuinely enjoyed was Zootopia, and I'm sure that furry influenced that. That last movie that I saw where I left the theater feeling as though I had experienced art was 2009's "Inglourious Basterds". I might just stop seeing movies. My time would be better-spent reminding the world what real art looks-like with my video games.
... Speaking of-which, its been sort-of a lackluster year for video games as well. Fallout76 isn't great, but its not as bad as everybody is saying. I'm genuinely enjoying it, but it would have been better as a single-player with NPCs. This year has been the year of AAA game flops, with Battlefield-V and Black Ops 4 both underwhelming fans, as did Fallout76. The only AAA that didn't flop was Red Dead 2, and I don't have a console :( . (though there are rumors that it will be out on PC).
... While movies seem to be stagnating, so is streaming. Netflix and Amazon have gotten extremely cookie-cutter too. In their arms race to win the streaming crown, quality has plummeted, and resulted in a bunch of cancellations this year.
... TV continues to die off. It seems like streaming is the future. I hope they get their act together. This year I discovered "The Expanse" and I am delighted that Amazon bought the show.
UNREACHED ACHIEVEMENTS
... Lets face it: I was horrible about my commitments last year. (again-again)
... Didn't release any video game that I had promised. (again-again)
... Etheras.com is still a mostly-blank page. (again-again)
.. no new music. I've pretty-much given up on this. My hard drive developed bad sectors this year and the effort required to reinstall all my now-outdated music software just doesn't seem worth-it. I was never that great of a musician to begin-with, and so-many other things are vying for my time.
... did not complete the Etheras novel that I spoke of last year. This will also be canceled. The Etheras novel that I had in-mind was non-canonical, and to avoid confusion and maybe broaden interest, I'm removing Etheras from it entirely and making the characters humans (boo, hiss, I know, sorry)
... I also failed to give an adequate presence to Etheras here on FA. I'll probably do a journal on this in the coming months to try and talk-out my waning interest in furry. Maybe I'm just too busy, and once I have a game or two shipped, furry will return. Who knows.
... Really, I didn't deliver on any thing that I promised last year ( sorry! #badfenn ) :(
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2019
.. Okay, I really really REALLY REALLY need to release at least 1 major video game title (non-furry). Possibly as many as 3. I mean it this time!
.. launch of www.etheras.com - I know, I know. Its taking forever, and I know I promised to have something up by the end of 2018. Believe it or not, I am actually pretty close to launching. Just having trouble finding the time to finish it.
.. why does this list look identical to last year? Its like 2018 (or 2017, for that matter) never happened. o.o
.. and of course, lots of Etheras artwork
Should be an exciting year! Hope you'll stay with me ^.^
Thanks,
~ Lord Etheras
Why I no longer consider myself a furry
Posted 7 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
OOC
Not really intended the title to be so clickbaity, but it might come off that way. But just to be clear: No, I'm not retiring Etheras.
I've been struggling-with the furry identity a little bit over the past year or so. You might have noticed many more journals of mine revolving around topics of the meaning of being furry and how that relates to the wider world. Lately I've found myself a little shackled by the term. When I was younger, if I were to describe myself, I'd state my job, and where I grew up, and that I'm a furry. Today, I don't think that I would. Its not that there's a stigma around being a furry (although admittedly there still is) - so its not a social acceptance thing. For me, it just has more to do with my self-identification. When I think of "furries" I just don't think of myself as being one. Maybe it has something to do with me no-longer attending conventions, but I think it probably has more to do with the fact that my life has been filled up by other things, that the volume of interests that were once central in my life have had to shrink to make room.
That's not to say that I no-longer enjoy anthro art, stories and characters. I still do, and probably always will. Just that furry is becoming less of a identity for me and more of an interest.
So what does this mean for Etheras? Nothing. I still love my fennec characters Etheras and Jaspian, and I will continue to get artwork (particularly of Etheras). But if I seem a little more disengaged than I once was, the sincere truth is: I am a bit more disengaged. And I kind-of just wanted to clear the air about that.
Anyway, still here. :P
~ Etheras
OOC
Not really intended the title to be so clickbaity, but it might come off that way. But just to be clear: No, I'm not retiring Etheras.
I've been struggling-with the furry identity a little bit over the past year or so. You might have noticed many more journals of mine revolving around topics of the meaning of being furry and how that relates to the wider world. Lately I've found myself a little shackled by the term. When I was younger, if I were to describe myself, I'd state my job, and where I grew up, and that I'm a furry. Today, I don't think that I would. Its not that there's a stigma around being a furry (although admittedly there still is) - so its not a social acceptance thing. For me, it just has more to do with my self-identification. When I think of "furries" I just don't think of myself as being one. Maybe it has something to do with me no-longer attending conventions, but I think it probably has more to do with the fact that my life has been filled up by other things, that the volume of interests that were once central in my life have had to shrink to make room.
That's not to say that I no-longer enjoy anthro art, stories and characters. I still do, and probably always will. Just that furry is becoming less of a identity for me and more of an interest.
So what does this mean for Etheras? Nothing. I still love my fennec characters Etheras and Jaspian, and I will continue to get artwork (particularly of Etheras). But if I seem a little more disengaged than I once was, the sincere truth is: I am a bit more disengaged. And I kind-of just wanted to clear the air about that.
Anyway, still here. :P
~ Etheras
DISCUSSION: Should Furry be Mainstream?
Posted 7 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
OOC
After the last journal, and reading your reactions, and speaking with some furry friends, I got to thinking - yes, it does appear to be true that the public is becoming more accepting of furry. In conversations, "normies" will joke and say "Oh he's just a furry," and "Did you get your flare today?" (etc) just to poke fun, but after a little playful banter, being a fur is a non-issue.
To a large degree, I think that this is because furry has become more mainstream. Everywhere you go on YouTube or Twitter you will find Pony and Furry avatars discussing topics unrelated to furry. The days of dismissing these furs out-of-hand (paw?) seem to have sunset. There are respectable representations of furry now in the public-eye that demonstrate that furries are (mostly) normal people, and cast the horror stories of shameful convention incidents and disgusting habits as outliers.
This is a good thing... or is it? I can't help but wonder if we've lost something of ourselves along the way. I feel like Furry has become more... not quite "commercial"... but perhaps "trendy" or "fashionable"? There is something about stigma that keeps the fandom pure. When you risk social backlash in order to join a fandom, it tends to keep disingenuous people and trenders away, leaving just the "real" furries in a smaller and more intimate fandom. Today, furry is crowded and anonymous, and filled with people who accept the mantle of "furry" just to be unique. They go to a few cons, maybe buy a suit, but are gone within a few years. That is to say: as furry seems to become more popular and publicly-accepted, it also seems to be ever-more superficial and disposable.
Just some thoughts that I've had. What are your thoughts? Comment below!
Thanks for reading,
~ Lord Etheras
OOC
After the last journal, and reading your reactions, and speaking with some furry friends, I got to thinking - yes, it does appear to be true that the public is becoming more accepting of furry. In conversations, "normies" will joke and say "Oh he's just a furry," and "Did you get your flare today?" (etc) just to poke fun, but after a little playful banter, being a fur is a non-issue.
To a large degree, I think that this is because furry has become more mainstream. Everywhere you go on YouTube or Twitter you will find Pony and Furry avatars discussing topics unrelated to furry. The days of dismissing these furs out-of-hand (paw?) seem to have sunset. There are respectable representations of furry now in the public-eye that demonstrate that furries are (mostly) normal people, and cast the horror stories of shameful convention incidents and disgusting habits as outliers.
This is a good thing... or is it? I can't help but wonder if we've lost something of ourselves along the way. I feel like Furry has become more... not quite "commercial"... but perhaps "trendy" or "fashionable"? There is something about stigma that keeps the fandom pure. When you risk social backlash in order to join a fandom, it tends to keep disingenuous people and trenders away, leaving just the "real" furries in a smaller and more intimate fandom. Today, furry is crowded and anonymous, and filled with people who accept the mantle of "furry" just to be unique. They go to a few cons, maybe buy a suit, but are gone within a few years. That is to say: as furry seems to become more popular and publicly-accepted, it also seems to be ever-more superficial and disposable.
Just some thoughts that I've had. What are your thoughts? Comment below!
Thanks for reading,
~ Lord Etheras
QUESTION: Is public acceptance of Furry rising?
Posted 7 years agoHearken to me, my subjects.
Yet-another OOC journal? Yes, I'm sorry. This is something that has been weighing on my mind. I have noticed that recently more furry has been getting more exposure in the public sphere - particularly in online discussions like podcasts and hangouts - and not all of it is negative.
More and more, the general public (at least on the internet) seems willing to look past furries being... yaknow, furries... and more likely to engage with them on topics of conversation and debate. Sure, they occasionally get the mean tease about being a horse-yiffer or whatever, but for the most part, it seems to me that public acceptance of furry is growing. Has anyone else noticed this, or am I completely wrong? And if you have seen this too, what do you think caused this shift?
Thanks for reading!
~ Lord Etheras
Yet-another OOC journal? Yes, I'm sorry. This is something that has been weighing on my mind. I have noticed that recently more furry has been getting more exposure in the public sphere - particularly in online discussions like podcasts and hangouts - and not all of it is negative.
More and more, the general public (at least on the internet) seems willing to look past furries being... yaknow, furries... and more likely to engage with them on topics of conversation and debate. Sure, they occasionally get the mean tease about being a horse-yiffer or whatever, but for the most part, it seems to me that public acceptance of furry is growing. Has anyone else noticed this, or am I completely wrong? And if you have seen this too, what do you think caused this shift?
Thanks for reading!
~ Lord Etheras
MILESTONE: 10,000 watchers!
Posted 7 years agoHearken to me, my subjects!
OOC
Earlier in the week, this profile crossed a new milestone: 10K watchers!
Thanks to everybody who enjoys Etheras and the situations he gets himself into. Thank you all for sticking by me, and I'm glad that you enjoy the things that I post to this profile. And there's plenty more to come! So I hope that you all enjoy the plans for what comes next!
Cheers,
~ Etheras
OOC
Earlier in the week, this profile crossed a new milestone: 10K watchers!
Thanks to everybody who enjoys Etheras and the situations he gets himself into. Thank you all for sticking by me, and I'm glad that you enjoy the things that I post to this profile. And there's plenty more to come! So I hope that you all enjoy the plans for what comes next!
Cheers,
~ Etheras
